Couples Urge Making Egg Donor Payment Legal To Solve IVF Black Market Economy

Two couples are calling for changes to Australian law to make egg donor payment legal, but capping it to solve the IVF black market economy.

Couples, Kim and Greg Castles and Dianne Johnstone and Shane Heron, appeared in a 60 Minutes interview with journalist Allison Langdon to reveal their search for an egg donor, that led them to a trade where there are young women who are willing to sell their eggs to the highest bidder.

Kim and Greg, both 51 had been trying to conceive naturally for almost a decade before they decided to search for a donor via a classified advertisement in the paper. They were surprised that as soon as responses came in, some tried to negotiate payments of up to $20,000 – a practice which is illegal in Australia and can attract a 15-year jail sentence.

“You resign yourself, you say ‘look, if you want this you’re going have to pay for it because no-one’s willing to go through all that for nothing’,” Kim said.

“It’s just the way the world is nowadays. It’s just all money, money, money, everyone wants money,” Greg added.

Thankfully, Kim and Greg found 22-year-old Jade Morgan, who said she would be willing to undergo painful fertility treatments, counselling and a surgery so she could donate her eggs in exchange for $5,000 worth of dental work. Now, they have a daughter named Nellie.

Meanwhile, Dianne and Shane, from the Blue Mountains, suffered seven miscarriages. They tried IVF but after fighting breast cancer and going through early menopause, Dianne could not conceive and was left feeling helpless.

Knowing it was illegal to purchase eggs in Australia, the couple decided to travel thousands of kilometres to South Africa, where it is legal to buy donor eggs, and where one clinic sees an average of three Australian couples a day, where they purchased an egg for only $850, and six months ago, they welcomed their son Liam into the world.

Australian surrogacy lawyer Stephen Page argued that women should be paid around $5,000 for giving up their eggs.

“These women who spend 50 hours multiple injections, have a shot in the stomach every day, have the risk of too many eggs being pulled out and as a result they may die they don’t get paid and I think $5,000 would be a reasonable figure,” he said.

Dianne, who now runs a website connecting couples and donors, said recipients often encounter potential donors who demand large amounts of money for their eggs. She believes up to 80 per cent of recipients in Australia secretly pay for eggs, which only further fuels the IVF black market economy. “The recipients play the game because that’s the only chance they’ve got to have their family and get their little bub and that’s all they want,” she told 60 Minutes.

The two couples believe that they will raise the issue of whether women aged in their late 40s and older, whose own eggs are no longer viable, should pursue their fertility dreams at any cost “” emotional and material. They say they are prepared for criticisms, saying they’ve already experienced them.

Sources: News.com.au and Dailymail.co.uk