Here’s another sign of the tough economic times: Some clinics are reporting a surge in the number of women applying to donate eggs or serve as surrogate mothers for infertile couples.<\/p>\n
The going rate for a surrogate is about $25,000. Egg donors generally receive $3,000 to $8,000. But a few agencies advertise that they’ll pay much more for specific characteristics. One ad running in campus newspapers promises $25,000 for a donor who is “100% Jewish with … High SAT Scores… Attractive, at Healthy Body Weight and Free of Genetic Diseases.”<\/p>\n
“Whenever the employment rate is down, we get more calls,” says Robin von Halle, president of Alternative Reproductive Resources, an agency in Chicago where inquiries from would-be egg donors are up 30% in recent weeks — to about 60 calls a day. “We’re even getting men offering up their wives. It’s pretty scary.”<\/p>\n