In Short Supply

DESPITE THE COST, DEMAND FOR DONORS continues to outstrip supply. Rosenberg recruits donors for IVF New Jersey's program. She and her husband, psychologist Yakov Epstein, counsel infertility patients and are co-authors of the book Getting Pregnant When You Thought You Couldn't. Epstein says to recruit donors, they place ads in newspapers. He says maybe 100 women will respond to an ad and some 30 of those will show up at a seminar about donating.

"Several will walk out when they find out it requires injections, and they can't have sex or smoke or drink," Epstein says. More women won't pass a psychological screening. If it appears she isn't organized enough to take her injections when she should, or that she doesn't have support from her family for donating, or that she might long for children made with her genes, the program will reject her application, Epstein says. So of the 100 women who respond to an ad, perhaps five will become donors.

Rosenberg says some are young mothers who "can't imagine what their life would be like without children." Many others are college students. "They say, 'I have great genes and I'm not using them right now. I'm dropping an egg every month. I might as well give that to someone because I think I'm pretty terrific.'"

Most egg donors say they're giving at least in part out of altruism, but compassion alone must not be enough. In countries that ban payment for egg donation, eggs are all but impossible to find. In the United States, the egg donation business is almost entirely unregulated. A person doesn't need a license to set up shop recruiting donors and matching them with recipients. And an egg donor can make anywhere from about $2,000 to $5,000, or even more, particularly if she's got certain hard-to-find genes. Asian donors, for instance, and Jewish donors, can command a premium.