Listening to: Simple Plan's God Must Hate Me

The weather's kinda horrid these days.. i call it "flu-inducing" weather.. threatening to rain one minute and then scorching sunshine the next. Only way to beat this weather is water. Not that i'm now dishing out health advice (this is not a one-stop service) but do drink loads of that water. we all need it.

anyway, remember i spoke about how some clinics would pay for women to donate their eggs. Apparently, it's big business in India too. Check this out:

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Oct 3, 2005
Sale of human eggs is big business in India

MUMBAI - WHEN a 25-year-old professional woman in India was looking for a way to earn some money so she could travel, a friend came up with what sounded like a simple solution.

Ms Mumbai Harsha Singh, the name The Economic Times gave the woman, was told in-vitro fertilisation banks would pay good money for eggs from her ovaries.

'I was told about the risks involved, but the money was tempting,' she told the newspaper. 'So, I took a chance.'

Ms Singh is one of a growing number of young women in India willing to gamble on the risky business to make extra cash, even though it is still considered morally and socially wrong here, the newspaper says. Women also run a risk of some medical complications, such as infection or ovarian hyper-stimulation syndrome.

The reason is simple - there is a growing market for it.

Women from more than 70 countries have visited India in the past two years, paying up to 40,000 rupees (S$1,600) to receive an egg donation - far less than it would cost in their own countries. The price for such treatments ranges from 60,000 rupees to 80,000 rupees in India compared to about £40,000 (S$119,680) in Britain.

Mumbai's Jaslok Hospital alone registers around 1,000 new patients a year - up to 100 of them foreigners - for infertility treatment.

Doctors there say: 'Many patients have to depend on egg donors as part of their treatment.'

It is an industry that experts expect to grow by leaps and bounds now that the Indian Council of Medical Research has recommended standard practices for commercial egg donation.

These allow any woman in the country between the age of 21 and 33 to sell her eggs to a third party.

While the practice is outlawed in Western countries such as France and Britain, it is legal in the United States - but the cost is steep.

A human egg in the US costs US$5,000 (S$8,495) to US$6,000 compared to between 20,000 rupees and 40,000 rupees in India.

Also fuelling the growth of the business is the fact that demand far exceeds supply.

So far, it is mostly females from poor families - many of them barely out of their teens - who donate their eggs for money.

Dr Firuza Parikh, an infertility specialist based at Jaslok Hospital and a member of the panel that has been drawing up guidelines, noted that 'there is an opportunity for commercial exploitation'.

She said the group's guidelines will take aim on this: 'This will prevent exploitation of the egg donor and the egg recipient.'

But even the reasons for the growth in the number of women willing to donate their eggs are changing with the times.

Gynaecologist Duru Shah said: 'I can understand when a lady does it to feed her family, but the number of women doing it just to support their lifestyles is a disturbing trend.'