Bartering Your Eggs: A Rotten Deal

The technology associated with assisted reproduction has grown exponentially in the last two decades. Planned oocyte and sperm freezing, posthumous reproductive genetic testing, and egg and donor sperm brokering are expanding infertility services. Demand has grown, as well. Estimates suggest there are now over one million donor-conceived children, about 10,000 per year. The use of donor gametes has allowed people with infertility or other medical conditions to achieve their parenthood goals.

The settings in which services are delivered are rapidly evolving, too. What was once only offered by academic and private medical facilities has become a burgeoning platform for start-ups, private equity firms, and international entrepreneurs. Corporations are offering insurance coverage for egg freezing for their young female employees. Around the country, egg freezing and egg shower parties market services to women. There are approximately 1,500 sperm banks and around 1,900 egg banks across the world with profits for sperm banks estimated at over $4 million in 2019 and for egg banks $487 million in the U.S. alone.

However, there is significant reproductive injustice and lack of access...