|
Police are targeting gynecology clinics and egg donors in a widening investigation of a flourishing illegal trade in human egg cells that has shocked Korea¡¯s conservative society.
Seoul Metropolitan Police is widening the scope of a crackdown that earlier netted a ring of traders who ran a booming business selling the eggs of Korean women to Japanese customers. Police found an additional 380 Japanese names on a list of customers kept by a broker identified as Yoo, who was booked for trading ova since 2002. They already found the names of 249 buyers.
Based on evidence from raids on four obstetrics clinics in southern Seoul on Friday, Seocho Police is also investigating whether doctors knew of the illegal source of the eggs when they performed fertility treatment.
One college student was said to have sold her eggs to three different buyers, while one Japanese customer bought the eggs of two or three Korean women, on one occasion purchasing 19 egg cells from one Korean woman, according to police.
Many of the donors identified themselves as accountants, models and medical students on a website where they advertised to ensure a high price for their eggs. Police said earlier that graduates of leading universities commanded the highest prices due to the genetic snobbery of customers, who also scrutinized photos of donors.
¡°The women decided to sell their eggs to pay tuition and repay credit card debts,¡± a police officer said. ¡°They were lured with the promise of big money.¡±
One step up from the trade in ova is surrogate motherhood, where Korean women were not only prepared to hire out their wombs for artificial insemination but also to conceive children the natural way, which commanded a better price. ¡°Some women were paid to bear children after having sex with the husband of a childless couple,¡± an officer said. But he added there were no plans for an investigation of surrogate motherhood for cash.
(englishnews@chosun.com )
|
