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Police have uncovered an underground network that sold the egg cells of Korean women to infertile Japanese couples. Police say the gang advertised for would-be egg donors on websites they operated between Dec.18, 2002 to Nov. 1 this year and also set up a Japanese branch in Shibuya, Tokyo, whose staff would attend gatherings of infertile woman to seek out customers.
The women thus scouted would then come to Korea to examine the donors¡¯ pictures, medical history, educational background and career, and decide whether to buy the ova in a final interview with the donor at the gang¡¯s office in Seocho-dong, Seoul. According to police, 250 women sold their eggs in this manner.
¡°Women who sold their eggs were usually in desperate need of money to pay off credit card debts and other things,¡± police said, ¡°The traffickers bought ova from women at prices ranging from W3-5 million (US$3,000) depending on the women¡¯s physical condition, education and appearance and arranged operations in fertility clinics in Seoul for the Japanese women, earning around W17 million per procedure.
The gang charged some W10 million for the eggs of Seoul National University graduates, W6 million for Sogang University graduates, W1.5 million for high school graduates. The eggs of students at distinguished universities fetched anywhere between W6 million and W10 million, police said.
Officers cited the case of a Japanese woman identified as Tanaka, who was lured to Korea by an operator identified as Yoo with the promise of artificial fertilization using eggs from a young Korean woman. Tanaka sent US$17,000 to Yoo, who bought the eggs from a university student for $2,500 and arranged the procedure. Yoo is being investigated for raking in $4.2 million in total with the business.
Police have not ruled out that egg cells may have been sold to Koreans as well.
(englishnews@chosun.com )
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