Paying women to donate eggs illegal and risky

A doctor thaws frozen eggs at the Third Affiliated Hospital of Guangzhou Medical University in Guangdong province in July. Zou Wei / for China Daily

A female student at Beijing Institute of Technology received a text message requesting she donate an egg to help infertile women, for which she would be paid 8,000 ($1,226) to 40,000 yuan within 15 days according to height, appearance and education level. Beijing News commented on Monday:

It is illegal in China for women to donate their eggs. Any form of commercializing the donating or providing of eggs is against the law. In addition, as admitted in the request, the donation is specifically aimed at producing boys. If the fetus proves to be a girl, it will be aborted within 50 days. Gender selection is also illegal.

But such an offer might appeal to some university students willing to ignore the illegality and the risks.

Even putting aside the illegality, there are health risks to be considered. Egg retrieval needs a certain dose of injections for ovarian stimulation before the operation, which may damage the donor's ovaries.

For young women, a large dose might produce more than 20 eggs each time, which could enlarge her ovaries, and in some cases, it could cause bleeding or even necrosis, meaning she will become infertile.

China has not opened-up in this area yet. The law needs to advance with the times and fully regulate egg donations and surrogacy. But it takes time.