London-based fertility clinic the Bridge Centre and its US associate is inviting would-be parents to attend a seminar at a London hotel on Wednesday (17/03/10), at which a human egg will be raffled.

The Daily Telegraph reports that the seminar is promoting a new service that helps would-be parents overcome UK fertility regulations which prohibit the sale of donor eggs.

The Bridge Centre teamed up with US fertility treatment provider the Genetics & IVF Institute (GIVF) last autumn – GIVF offers eggs that have been selected according to racial background, health, upbringing and education.

Although selling human eggs is illegal in Britain, UK customers can pay £13,000 for an egg and receive fertility treatment in the US.

The clinic says that ‘a handful’ of women from the UK have already undergone the procedure – and a further 10 are expected to be treated in the next few months. Eventually as many as 25 women per month could benefit, with eggs being donated in the US by women aged 19-32.

Sources say egg donors are paid around £6,600 per egg (US$10,000) if they are considered ‘educated and good looking’. All egg donors are required to have a university degree and those who are overweight or smoke are ‘automatically rejected’.

The donors are selected through anonymous profiles – whereas in the UK, egg donors have to be identified when a child reaches 18 years, to enable them to trace their biological mother.

GIVF's donor egg programme co-ordinator, Jennifer Machovina, said that out of the 500 applications to be an egg donor received by GIVF every month, only five applicants were selected as egg donors during the two-month selection process.

‘We have about 200 donors on our books and they cover a big range of ethnicities and backgrounds, so people have more chance of getting a donor who looks like them.

‘Although it is anonymous, they get asked a lot of questions – we want them to understand this is something bigger than a process with a cheque at the end of it.’

However, founder of the group Comment on Reproductive Ethics, Josephine Quintavelle, has criticised the practice of selling human eggs for fertility treatment.

‘These women selling their eggs are taking a huge risk with their health and future fertility simply because they need the money,’ she said.

Ms Quintavelle added that the procedure amounted to ‘ruthless exploitation of the vulnerable’.

A 38-year-old Midlands-based woman who was one of the clinic’s first clients said that she had no intention of telling either her family or her children about the conception through a donor egg screened for looks, education and other factors.

She is currently three months into her pregnancy and is expecting twins, having paid £13,000 to a 27-year-old US woman who donated two eggs to her.

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