In the clinical halls of some InVitro Fertilisation (IVF) centres across Nigeria, a new kind of transaction is quietly thriving. University students, especially, often driven by financial hardship, ignorance or peer pressure, are becoming the unseen suppliers of eggs and sperm, helping others achieve parenthood for money.
IVF is a medical procedure whereby an egg is fertilised by sperm in a test tube or elsewhere outside the body. It is the joining of a woman’s egg and a man’s sperm in a laboratory dish.
Analysts have observed that egg and sperm donation, once a discreet practice, has evolved into a competitive marketplace.
They note that payments for such donations range from ₦20,000 to ₦50,000 or more, depending on the clinic’s location, donor’s characteristics, and involvement of egg brokers.
They acknowledge that egg and sperm donation is medically and legally permitted but express worry at the growing trend of indiscriminate egg and sperm donation especially by students.
A journalist, Mrs. Dorothy Nwankwo, is convinced that such donations have serious ethical and health concerns and called for the scrutiny of fertility clinics and donors to guard against unethical practices, including exploitation of the vulnerable.
A Professor in Family Law, Reproductive and Gender Justice at the Faculty of Law, University of Ibadan, Omolade Olomola attributes the situation to poverty and absence of adequate regulations.
She said poor enlightenment and erosion of moral values make people donate sperm and eggs indiscriminately for money.
The don discloses that a female student was reportedly taken from Lagos to Abuja to donate eggs because she wanted to pay her tuition.
“At the end of the day, she collected maybe ₦14,000, because they told her what might have been a lie – that her eggs were not viable.
“They didn’t tell her that it was an intrusive procedure, and she was a virgin.
“She said she still had emotional and psychological trauma from that procedure,” Olomola narrates.
She regrets that some parents cannot support their children in school, making some of such children do anything to get education such as engaging in the donation with inherent dangers.
“All they want is to make money to survive immediately. What they do with them is very horrible just as people used it as a baby factory.
“They are made to sign an undertaking, and immediately they collect their phones and lock the doors so that they lose their freedom.
“They bombard them with various injections until the procedure is done.
“I am not against people selling their eggs or sperm but if it must be done, it must be properly done,” Olomola emphasises.
She called adequate regulation of IVF to address the menace.
An expert in IVF and Chief Medical Director of Vine Branch Medical Centre, Ibadan, Dr Bukumi Kolade, said egg donation by women should be strongly regulated, adding that the regulations should also stipulate how many times annually a person can donate and the number of times in a lifetime.
“These are bills that can be pushed at the federal level. Now, while that is not there, a responsible clinic should have an ethics committee that will sit down and agree on the dos and don’ts of that clinic.
“It can be that a donor should not donate more than a number of times depending on his or her age, medical conditions, etc.
“Before we have something like that coming up at the federal level, responsible clinics should have something like that in place.
“This is because if something goes wrong, they are going to be liable,” Kolade warns.
The IVF expert is convinced that students donating eggs and sperm may not stop as she likened it to blood donation.
According to him, about 60 percent of blood donors do so for commercial purposes, while 10 per cent do it voluntarily, and 30 per cent, for relatives in need.
“As long as we have people who need blood, we will have people that are commercial blood donors.
“Also, as long as we have people who need eggs, we will have people who are commercial egg donors, but the young ladies should be made to understand the risks involved in what they are doing.
“It should not be seen as a means of livelihood,” adding that adequate enlightenment will make the donors understand what they are getting into.
Kolade warns that such donations are associated with some risks, including urine infection, injury to the bladder, injury to the uterus and other infections“They are minor injuries, they are things that will resolve but they are still injuries.
“The egg donation process has two parts. One part is that the woman is given some medications to stimulate her to produce eggs.
“These medications, they (donors) can react to them. That is a risk and the more they do that, the higher the risk of their reacting to the medications.
Kolade said egg collection process requires a minor procedure, adding that “the risk may be 0.15 per cent, but it is a risk, and the more they do it, the higher the risk of something going wrong,” the expert said.
For the Medical Director and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Zenith Hospital, Ibadan, Dr. Olalekan Ogunlowo, donation of eggs and sperm for money is not new.
He said just as people donate blood, people have been donating eggs and sperm for assisted reproduction.
He, however, says it is unfortunate that some young people, due to economic hardship, use it as a means of livelihood.
The CEO blames the menace on poverty and lack of awareness of the associated risks.
“They are just doing it anyhow because of what they are looking for: money.
“Unfortunately, some of our colleagues, medical colleagues, because of one thing or the other, are giving them opportunities to come and donate,” Ogunlowo regrets.
He urges proper regulations, advising that medical practitioners should be carried along when drafting such regulations.
“This is because the donation is not something that can be done anywhere. It is done in the hospital; so, to regulate it, we have to carry medical doctors along properly.”
Ogunlowo emphasises the importance of determining who should donate eggs and sperm and should not, as well as how often someone should donate and the maximum number of times someone should donate.
According to him, reports show that young men and women aged from 18 years to 22 years are the ones engaging in the commercialisation of eggs and sperm.
He equally notes that donation of eggs and sperm involves the use of some medicines to make the donor produce eggs or sperm – to make the female ovulate and the male to ejaculate.
“The few side effects that you can have from it is that, occasionally, some people can develop cysts, ovarian cysts.
“Some people occasionally can have lower abdominal pains, which if they complain to their doctors, there are some other medications that can be given to them to subside the pains,” he explains.
Ogunlowo warns of the long-term effects of indiscriminate and ignorant donation of eggs and sperm.
A public health specialist, Dr. Abiola Ajibola, said students in tertiary institutions should understand the importance of keeping their eggs and sperm, regardless of the pressure around them.
She warns also that students engaging in indiscriminate donation of eggs and sperm are taking medical and emotional risks.
“If someone donates eggs while in school and later, when married, is unable to give birth, it will affect her emotionally,” Ajibola argues.
She urges the House of Representatives and the Senate to look into the matter and tackle it through legislation.
Ajibola also urges that fertility clinics exploiting young people should be shut, `especially fertility clinics where girls are being locked up and their eggs harvested’.
(NAN Feature)
