In the January 25th edition of The Boston Herald, a side-bar to two articles for which I was interviewed discusses a West Coast couple advertising at MIT for a donor and offering her a compensation of $35,000.00. I am not sure where to begin my commentary on this couple’s determination to recruit a “genius Asian egg donor” with a lure $25,000.00 above industry standards for best practices as established by the Ethics Committee of the American Society of Reproductive Medicine. Yet my staff, my colleagues and even the donors who work with Prospective Families are well-aware of such practices.
 
From time-to-time, I receive calls from prospective parents intending to offer exorbitant compensation for what they view as “superior donors”…I decline every one of these requests for services but not before mentioning that where a donor matriculates (e.g.) or what her grade point average is not an indication of her fertility and that an MIT student is no more likely to bring any couple to family building success than a donor with less “pedigree”. In the article the would-be recipient parents claim to be setting the bar high….but I am not sure what bar they are referring to as nothing in their approach to donor identification (at least as they have shared such in this article) is an intelligent approach to maximizing their chances of becoming parents.
 
Donors, according to both the FDA as well as the American Society of Reproductive Medicine are to be selected based on their health and fertility first. Couples who approach donor selection with an “I can buy superior eggs with more money” mentality and agencies and clinics that work with same are operating outside of agreed upon industry practices and are exactly the sort of folks who invite government intervention where a significant majority of practitioners agree to self-regulate, practice within the ethical industry guidelines and in a manner that does not encourage a coercive enticement of young women into egg donation.