Sex Cells: The Medical Market for Eggs and Sperm by Rene Almeling

Author:Rene Almeling [Almeling, Rene]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Sociology, Social Science, Medical, Economics, Reproductive Medicine & Technology, Marriage & Family, General, Business & Economics
ISBN: 9780520270961
Google: Ya96ogtg2mUC
Amazon: 0520270967
Publisher: University of California Press
Published: 2011-08-12T16:00:00+00:00

In most cases, program staffers determine the fee, and egg donors are not always aware of the reasoning involved. For example, Lisa, a twenty-six-year-old, was told by OvaCorp’s donor manager that the “first time around, they usually pay 3,000 [dollars].” So she was surprised when the higher “price” of $4,000 appeared on her first contract in 2002. “For some reason, [the donor manager] asked for more money for me from this first couple. I think it was because I had already had two children and my age. She said I was desirable.” When I asked Lisa what that meant, she responded with a laugh, “Good eggs, I don’t know, good genes.” Likewise, Kim, another OvaCorp donor who was a twenty-three-year-old college graduate, did not know why she was being paid $5,000 for her first cycle but joked, “I’m not going to complain.”

In two cases, the request for a higher fee came from the donor, and it is worth noting that Jane and Dana ended up with some of the highest fees in the sample. Dana did not make this request until her fifth cycle, when she and the Gametes Inc. donor manager decided to ask for $8,000 from the recipients, who countered with $7,000. The negotiation was ongoing at the time of our interview. Like other egg donors, Dana expressed ambivalence about focusing on the money. “I’ve really felt bad about asking for that much. I didn’t want to feel greedy, but at the same time, as much as you have to go through, not only physically but mentally, and the time you have to take away from your job and your family, you really need to be compensated for it.”7

There is much less variation in what men are paid per donation, with most banks offering the same flat rate to all donors. This was set at $50 at the nonprofit Western Sperm Bank and $75 at the for-profit CryoCorp in 2002. Gametes Inc. has a two-tiered system, paying anonymous donors $65 and identity-release donors $100 per sample in 2006. But even these slight differences in rates combine with variation in how often men donate to create a wide range of earnings among sperm donors. Staffers encourage men to make weekly deposits (at least), but some donors choose to donate two or three times a week. It is very common for samples not to pass, though. So men who make $50 per sample and donate (and pass) one sample each week will make $200 in a month, and those who make $100 per sample and donate (and pass) three samples each week can make as much as $1,200 in that time.

Inevitably, sperm banks trumpet the highest amount possible in their advertisements, but donors rarely achieved this level of income on a regular basis. Four men who were paid $50 per sample at Western Sperm Bank reported earning between $250 and $500 per month (average: $375). Seven identity-release donors who were paid $100 per sample at Gametes Inc. reported earning between $600 and $1,200 per month (average: $930).

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