$3B Fertility Industry the Wild West of U.S. Medicine
By Justine Griffin,
Sarasota Herald-Tribune
| 05. 25. 2014
Editor's note: Inspired to act by a childhood loss, Sarasota Herald-Tribune staff writer Justine Griffin became an egg donor and eventually helped a couple in Ireland have a baby. This is an excerpt of her story and tough lessons she learned about a donor's worth once her contract was fulfilled. To read the entire version of Griffin's story and watch a video diary of her journey, go to costoflife.heraldtribune.com. Griffin donated her eggs for personal reasons, not as a Halifax Media Group employee. All doctors and agency staff were aware she was writing the story.
I have always been the wimp in my family, the first to cry or complain at any sign of pain or discomfort.
My parents and younger brother have taken great pleasure in re-enacting all my greatest "near-death" experiences and illnesses at the dinner table over the years. Like the time I fell off the back of a golf cart and was convinced I'd broken my collar bone. (I didn't.)
Or the time I thought I had meningitis. (It was just a cold.)
So the idea...
Related Articles
By Carly Mallenbaum and Alex Golden, Axios | 04.08.2026
Without a federal law, surrogacy in the U.S. is governed by a patchwork of state regulations that can determine everything from whether agreements are legally binding to who is recognized as a parent at birth.
Why it matters: More Americans...
By Miguel Muñoz, Cadena SER | 08.04.2026
"Para ellos, una familia numerosa no solo es una preferencia personal, sino que es una obligación. Creen que tener tantos hijos como sea posible es necesario para evitar un futuro apocalíptico", aseguraba Xavier Orri, periodista y cofundador de Página Internacional...
By Sarah Elizabeth Richards, Scientific American | 04.02.2026
For the past two decades, fertility specialists have wrestled with a troubling question: Why do Black people have lower live birth rates after in vitro fertilization (IVF) treatment than white people?
Researchers have proposed several explanations, such as the fact...
By Anna Collinson and Jo Adnitt, BBC | 04.02.2026
The government in northern Cyprus has said it is launching an investigation after several British families told the BBC they believed they were given the wrong sperm or egg donors during their IVF procedures at local fertility clinics.
The Ministry...