A woman almost died because of 'selling eggs' on the black market

A Chinese teenage girl had her ovaries damaged after surgery to remove 21 eggs and sell them to a broker.

The girls who sell their eggs will be tested for their education level, height, blood type, or anything that can prove they have good genes. Photo: CCTV.

According to a newly released report by the Guangdong Provincial Health and Family Planning Commission, the victim was a female student at a technical school in the province who knew an employee of Bei Er Qi Yuan Science and Technology Company.

Friends told her about the money she could make by selling her eggs, and the student agreed to sell her eggs for $2,200 for an egg retrieval surgery. She was given injections for more than 10 days to stimulate her eggs and had the egg retrieval surgery in October last year, SCMP reported on July 27.

However, three days later, she became seriously ill and had to be hospitalized. Doctors said both of her ovaries were severely damaged. Two employees of Bei Er Qi Yuan were arrested in April and sentenced to 22 months in prison for practicing medicine without a license.

This is the first criminal case stemming from an investigation by the Guangdong Provincial Health and Family Planning Commission into illegal human egg trafficking.

The student said she and three other girls were taken by van to an apartment for the surgery, with curtains covering the windows so they did not know where they were being taken. Women involved in selling eggs on the black market are typically young, possibly college or high school students. They are often lured by brokers into selling their eggs without knowing the damage the surgery will cause to their bodies.

In June, a Chinese newspaper reported that egg brokers in Nanjing, the capital of Jiangsu province, often lure “good-looking” and “highly educated” female university students, selling their eggs for 30,000 to 80,000 yuan each (US$4,500-11,900).

According to a study four years ago by the China Population Association, one in eight couples in mainland China are infertile, equivalent to 40 million people.

Chinese law prohibits medical institutions or doctors from engaging in the procurement and sale of sperm, eggs or surrogacy, but not other organizations, making many police efforts to stop the black market ineffective. Guangdong health authorities have called on government departments to strengthen cooperation in cracking down on illegal egg trafficking and surrogacy.

"Surrogacy organizations divide the service chain into many segments. The offices, egg collection sites, laboratories, and surrogacy waiting areas are all located in different locations and managed by different staff," said a statement from the Guangdong provincial health authority. "Therefore, the activities of these organizations take place in many different regions, in a very secretive and tight circle. Ministries and sectors need to cooperate and establish a long-term mechanism to combat this black market."

According to VNE