Couple seeking woman to donate eggs offers $100,000

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- A pair of would-be parents has placed an ad offering $100,000 for the eggs of a bright, young, white athlete --<br>possibly the highest offer yet made for such a service.<br><br>Their

Tuesday, February 8th 2000, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- A pair of would-be parents has placed an ad offering $100,000 for the eggs of a bright, young, white athlete --
possibly the highest offer yet made for such a service.

Their asking price has raised ethical questions even for advocates of high-tech reproductive medicine, who say giving eggs should be about helping others, not making a big cash payoff.

The couple's half-page advertisement, which ran this week in Stanford University's student newspaper, specified that the woman be under 30 and an athlete "of proven college-level ability."

The highest known price before was $50,000, offered through an ad last year in a number of Ivy League college papers.

The ad was placed by Families 2000, a donor-recruiting service based in Southern California. The service did not return phone
calls seeking comment Tuesday.

Fertility doctors and medical ethicists say the high-priced offer -- designed to attract a premium candidate -- may actually
backfire and attract a dishonest and risky donor. Most donors are paid around $4,000 for the process, which entails six weeks on
hormone drugs, followed by invasive surgery to harvest 12 to 15 eggs.