Egg trafficking in Romania
Israeli doctor arrested
Romanian police have detained an Israeli gynaecologist, his son and a local employee on suspicion of trafficking women’s eggs for their IVF clinic in Bucharest. Another 22 people are under investigation.
"The group was focussing on identifying foreign couples eager to resort to reproduction techniques and on grabbing Romanian (women) aged 18-30 to donate ova for 800 to 1,000 lei (US$270 to $335)," the department for fighting organised crime told the media. (The going price for eggs in the US is anywhere between US$10,000 and $50,000.)
According to the Romanian media, the Sabyc fertility clinic had carried out about 1,200 in vitro fertilisation procedures since opening in 1999. It catered mainly for Israeli, Italian and British couples who reportedly paid 10,000 to 15,000 euros for treatment. The women who allegedly received payment for egg donations reportedly included university students and women from the Roma (Gypsy) community. ~ Haaretz.com, July 22; Reuters, July 20
Michael Cook
- Queensland legalises ‘assisted dying’ - September 19, 2021
- Is abortion a global public health emergency? - April 11, 2021
- Dutch doctors cleared to euthanise dementia patients who have advance directives - November 22, 2020
More Stories
A painful debate: shrinking the carbon footprint of anaesthetics
If there is any profession which seems remote from the Sturm und Drang of climate change, it must be anaesthetists....
Some patients recall death experiences after heart attacks
In an article in the journal Resuscitation, some survivors of cardiac arrest have described lucid death experiences that occurred while...
Queensland widower dies after taking assisted suicide drugs ordered by his wife
“Move along, please. Nothing to see here.” This was more or less the reaction of supporters of “voluntary assisted dying”...
Australian first: nurse donates organs after euthanasia
A Victorian woman has become the first Australian to combine death by euthanasia with organ donation. Ballarat nurse Marlene Bevern,...
Canadian study hints at crushing institutional conscience objections to ‘assisted dying’
Supporters of “voluntary assisted dying” fought hard to achieve legalisation in various jurisdictions around the world. After legalisation, however, battles...
Hope, hype and xenotransplantation
On January 7, 2022 David Bennett, a 57-year-old with terminal heart disease, made history as the first person to receive...