Donors Allege Price-Fixing Scheme by Fertility Clinics for Human Eggs

By Peter Jamison Fri., Aug. 5 2011 at 3:35 PM

Big business?

An Arcata woman is suing national reproductive-medicine groups, alleging that they and their member fertility clinics have engaged in a price-fixing scheme to underpay female donors for their eggs.

In her lawsuit, filed this week in San Francisco's federal courthouse, plaintiff Justine Levy alleges that the American Society for Reproductive Medicine and the Society for Assisted Reproductive Technology have essentially formed a cartel designed to suppress the amount of money paid to egg donors. The Society alone includes 395 clinics, or 85 percent of the U.S. market.

Levy says this scheme is deviously explained through a false ethical pretext. The organizations assert that they seek to regulate prices so as not to offer an undue incentive for women to go through the uncomfortable and prolonged process of egg donation. As a result, in 2000 they set guidelines stating that paying more than $5,000 for an egg should only be done after careful consideration, and paying more than $10,000 should not be done at all.

"The maximum price rules set by Defendants are not merely ethical guidelines, but strict rules that must be followed [by fertility clinics] as a condition of membership," the complaint states. "The maximum price rules do not take into account the time, discomfort, health risks or possibility of future medical complications that come with donating human eggs. Nor do they take into account any adjustment for cost of living changes within the past 11 years."

Levy says in her complaint that she was paid $3,500 in February 2008 for donating an egg to a Seattle clinic. About $85 million worth of human eggs are sold in the U.S. annually, according to the lawsuit.

The complaint was filed as part of a class-action suit; Levy and her lawyers say their class could include thousands of other donors. The suit states that the plaintiffs will seek damages of more than $5 million.

And who knows how much they'll make on film rights for this legal battle.

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Tags:

human egg, in-vitro fertilization, ovaries, price-fixing, U.S. District Court

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Infertility Clinics

The only justification to do this is for the income. The community doesn't need more kids when it can't deal with those here already. So maybe you're envious you didn't ask for as much up front? Or maybe her ova are truly more vital than just leasing your womb. Infertility Clinics

GUEST

The prices you quote in your article are for being an egg donor. This could generate an average of about 15 eggs. Each egg likely has a chance of around 10% of generating a pregnancy. Your article is misleading.

Johannesburgh

This is clearly a woman who began this process only for the money. Woman who participate in assisted fertility only for the money are in it for the wrong reasons and will only cause trouble. I just finished being a surrogate and I can't imagine waiting 3 years and then deciding that I didn't make enough and suing people. She doesn't deserve any more money.

Elizabeth Frantes

The only valid reason to do this is for the money. The world doesn't need more children when it can't take care of those here already. So maybe you're jealous you didn't ask for as much up front? Or maybe her ova are worth more than just renting your uterus.

Elizabeth Frantes

Why are women such losers? Why do they continue to define themselves by breeding? In a world this overpopulated, why are we wasting any medical resources on this idiocy of "assisted reproduction?" Why not adopt?