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Topic: People turning their bodies into money-makers
franshade's photo
Tue 02/24/09 06:25 AM
By DIANNA SMITH
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Monday, February 23, 2009

Selling your body for cash may sound like a bad thing.

But it's not what you might think.

While jobs are being slashed and hours cut, South Floridians are anxiously hunting for quick ways to make money.

Many are turning to less conventional methods of generating income: Plasma, hair, eggs. Even a woman's womb is rentable nowadays.

Of course, not everyone qualifies as a donor, and women whose only reason to volunteer is that they're broke are often rejected.

"Sure, anybody could use $25,000 or $30,000," said Delray Beach-based attorney Charlotte Danciu, who specializes in surrogacy and adoption issues. "But you don't want someone whose life is a mess."

It used to be that the Palm Beach Fertility Center west of Boca Raton was always looking for egg donors. Now, it has more potential donors than recipients.

In the fall, the center began to receive about five phone calls a week from curious women. The norm used to be one call a month.

Mark Denker, the center's medical director, said the number of inquiries has jumped to 20 a week. Word is spreading that donating eggs can pay $5,000.

"It makes sense," Denker said. "They can use the money."

He stressed that women who are interested only in the cash are usually rejected.

Carrie, who did not want her last name used, has been accepted once already. Denker's office asked her to donate her eggs again because the first couple she helped wants to have another child.

Carrie, 26, said she likes knowing that she's helping a couple have a family. But the money helps, too.

"I use it as income, to pay bills, pay off school loans," she said. "I'm not taking a vacation."

To qualify for egg donation, women must meet strict criteria, including being a nonsmoker and agreeing to take injections of fertility drugs.

The center once had only one catalog of donors. Now there are two binders with a total of 100 donors. They include blondes, brunettes, whites, blacks, Asians, even Jewish women, who used to be difficult to find.

But there's a flip side to the worsening economy: The number of recipients is dropping. Three clients in the past month have canceled their treatments because they can't afford them. Patients who use an egg donor pay an estimated $20,000.

"People were refinancing their homes to have children, but they can't do that anymore," Denker said. "We want to help, but we can't treat people for free."

Surrogacy on the rise

Phone calls are also flooding the Boca Fertility IVF Center.

In the past, officials would receive about eight calls a month from women interested in either donating eggs or becoming a surrogate mother.

Now they're getting that many in one day.

The number has spiked for those calling about carrying a stranger's baby - a procedure that could net from $18,000 to $70,000, whatever the couple and the carrier agree to.

Sounds like a lot of money, but Moshe Peress, the center's medical director, said his staff reminds the women that being a surrogate is tough work.

"We make it clear the primary reason for going into something like this has to involve the altruistic aspects of this procedure," Peress said. "You are bringing an individual into this life and it's a huge responsibility."

Being a surrogate includes rigorous evaluations, meetings with lawyers, numerous medical appointments and everything else that comes along with pregnancy.

Claribel, 32, who would not reveal her last name, is becoming a surrogate mother for the fourth time. She has five children of her own and says the money she makes from surrogacy has helped them survive the past seven years.

"I couldn't find a job. I didn't know how to take care of my babies," said Claribel, who is being paid $25,000 by a South Florida couple for her current pregnancy. "The economy is so bad. It's a way for me to be there for my family."

Plasma donations flow

Donating plasma has become a ritual for many.

The Biotest Pharmaceuticals Corp. in Pembroke Pines sees an estimated 1,200 people a week. On average, a donor is paid $45 to $50 to sit in a chair for about an hour, reading or watching television while plasma is extracted from the body.

Plasma is the clear yellowish fluid portion of the blood that transports water and nutrients to the cells. It is quickly replaced by the body, normally within 24 hours, so people can donate up to twice a week, spokesman Dan Gamache said.

The center, which draws people from Palm Beach County to the Keys, offers monthly bonuses to those who donate consistently.

Steve, a West Palm Beach resident who did not want to give his last name, takes Tri-Rail to the center twice a week. He said the money he receives helps pay the bills.

"If you have an $80 light bill for the month, it's paid," he said. "Your telephone bill, paid."

Latoya Frazier of Miami has been donating twice a week since October, when she lost her job working for an ophthalmologist in Fort Lauderdale. She said she uses the money to pay for gasoline so she can take her daughter to school and submit job applications. So far, no one has called.

"It's a mess," Frazier said. "I'm applying but they say, 'We're not hiring, we're cutting.' Whatever I can do, I will do it."


I doubt I would be inclined to sell anything off my body, I donate blood but to sell it doubt it.

What would you do in a crunch? What would you sell?


no photo
Tue 02/24/09 06:33 AM
I would sell or donate my eggs, I won't be using them. Unfortunately, I'm medically precluded from doing so. I draw the line at selling any other body part, though.

franshade's photo
Tue 02/24/09 06:37 AM
This is such a common practice in other parts of the world - even the black market. But can't see myself selling an organ or anything on my person.

I have also donated hair to Locks of Love.

no photo
Tue 02/24/09 06:59 AM
I can't imagine being that hard up for money that I'd want to sell a kidney or something. Eggs, sperm, blood, ok I guess but an organ? Donate, yes under the right circumstances I'd be willing to take the risk but sell? No, I can't imagine that.

nogames39's photo
Tue 02/24/09 09:56 AM
Who's business is it what people sell?

Nobody outside of that transaction.

franshade's photo
Tue 02/24/09 09:59 AM

Who's business is it what people sell?

Nobody outside of that transaction.


Don't remember asking one way or the other, simply posted an article I found interesting and commented on it, as you have.


nogames39's photo
Tue 02/24/09 10:11 AM
I am not answering you one way or another, but simply commenting on it.

Here is another comment: How is it different from people using their bodies as money making machines before the crisis? Models do exactly that. Unless, it is their brains, of course, that pay their salary.

no photo
Tue 02/24/09 10:12 AM
give you twenty bucks for that kidney

nogames39's photo
Tue 02/24/09 10:29 AM

give you twenty bucks for that kidney


Joking aside, I know someone who died recently because he needed liver, and the united states government prohibits organ trade.

Make no mistake, I am not advocating for violence. But free trade on organs should exist.

Because of a lack of market, he dies, waiting in lane. This individual was very wealthy. Had he considered truly free markets in the world, he would have been alive now.

franshade's photo
Tue 02/24/09 10:35 AM
Assuming this person had no family or a living donor - friend, I'm sorry.


For patients who are experiencing organ failure and are in need of a transplant, finding a living related organ donor can be the best way to get a transplant without an extended waiting period. Living related donation is the original type of organ donation, starting with the first kidney transplant in 1954, with a kidney donated by the patient's identical twin.

Living related donation is becoming more popular as patients are waiting longer than ever for a transplant. A patient’s best chance for a transplant, without the extended wait, is to find a donor from their family or a friend.

Otherwise it is upon someone's death that the donation cycle begins.

nogames39's photo
Tue 02/24/09 10:48 AM

Assuming this person had no family or a living donor - friend, I'm sorry.


For patients who are experiencing organ failure and are in need of a transplant, finding a living related organ donor can be the best way to get a transplant without an extended waiting period. Living related donation is the original type of organ donation, starting with the first kidney transplant in 1954, with a kidney donated by the patient's identical twin.

Living related donation is becoming more popular as patients are waiting longer than ever for a transplant. A patient’s best chance for a transplant, without the extended wait, is to find a donor from their family or a friend.

Otherwise it is upon someone's death that the donation cycle begins.


In free market, there is even better way to solve this. As quiet_2008 said it: "give you twenty bucks for that kidney ".

Lynann's photo
Tue 02/24/09 11:00 AM
I worked for years in the early 1980's in a plasma donation center. They were the largest manufacturer of factor 8 and at that time most donors were college students and street people. A friend of mine who works in the field now says they are seeing people coming in on their lunch hour and soccer moms. A real shift in the donor demographic.

franshade's photo
Tue 02/24/09 11:08 AM
I'm sure, varying reasons for doing so.

Just commenting because I am not sure how far 'I' would go, what extreme circumstance must 'I' be faced with to even consider.




no photo
Tue 02/24/09 11:13 AM
better to buy a kidney or a living donation than to sit in line waiting for a roadkill

franshade's photo
Tue 02/24/09 11:18 AM
I doubt I'd give becoming a living donor a second thought if I could help a loved one, but am unsure if I'd do it for profit.


no photo
Tue 02/24/09 11:26 AM

I doubt I'd give becoming a living donor a second thought if I could help a loved one, but am unsure if I'd do it for profit.




give you twenty bucks

franshade's photo
Tue 02/24/09 11:27 AM
flowerforyou for $20.00 bucks I'd give you free advice laugh

no photo
Tue 02/24/09 11:29 AM
Edited by quiet_2008 on Tue 02/24/09 11:29 AM
laugh

I get plenty of free advice from my mom

franshade's photo
Tue 02/24/09 11:56 AM

laugh

I get plenty of free advice from my mom


see talk about free enterprise, buy one (advice) get one free laugh

just kidding about the advice being free laugh

beachbum069's photo
Tue 02/24/09 12:27 PM
I tried to sell my body but the highest offer was I had to give them $50.

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