The market for women's eggs is booming. But wide differences in price and poor regulation over human egg donations have created an international black market for eggs
Scott Carney speaks about his reporting on the sale of human eggs on The Leonard Lopate Show.
Feminist radio show The Majority United speaks with Scott Carney to understand the impact of black market adoption deals and genetic and body part trading on women.
Sometimes certain information can propel itself forward regardless of its factual accuracy.
Human egg donors in Spain are predominantly immigrant women with few other legal options for making money.
Technological advances in fertility offer increasingly broad markets, presenting soon-to-be expectant parents with an array of options for genetics and conception.
Though human egg harvesting is legal in Cyprus, one clinic comes under fire for violation of even lax Cypriot guidelines, including allegations of dangerous over-harvesting and over-stimulation of patients.
Low income women with few other means of supporting themselves or their families are most vulnerable to selling into the dangerous human egg trade.
Altruism can't be bought; low payments for human eggs creates incentive enough for only the most desperate women.
With no other means of income, illegal Russian immigrants in Cyprus often resort to a dangerous yet relatively lucrative option: selling their eggs.
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Scott Carney combines anthropology with long-form investigative journalism. He is a contributing editor for WIRED magazine and his work also appears in Mother Jones, NPR, Fast Company...