Sex Cells: The Medical Market for Eggs and Sperm Read Online Free PDF Page B

are happy, because if we don’t have happy donors, then we don’t have a program, and yet make sure the clients are happy as well [ laughs ]. So we’re always mindful of that.” But in sperm banks, being a “happy donor,” whose sex cells are purchased by many different recipients months after he has produced them, is not predicated on being placed in the position of “loving” and “being loved by” extremely grateful “future parents.”
    FRAMING PAID DONATION AS A GIFT OR A JOB
    Programs screen applicants for “responsibility,” and staff must carefully monitor donors as they fulfill contractual obligations to produce eggs and sperm. Egg agency staffers are always on the phone with donorsand doctors to find out when women begin menstruating, start fertility shots, miss doctors’ appointments, and schedule egg retrievals. Creative Beginnings’ founder explained, “Most of the donors are very conscientious, and especially our donors, because we look for girls who are going to be compliant and do things right.” To maintain “inventory,” sperm bank staffers are continually assessing which donors miss appointments, register unusually low sperm counts, or need blood drawn for periodic disease testing. According to a donor screener, Western Sperm Bank must be vigilant because donors “are creating a product that we’re vouching for in terms of quality control.”
    If an egg donor is not currently available, as is the case with many of the most popular donors, then an egg recipient can “reserve” her for a future cycle. If a sperm donor’s vials are “sold out” for that month, recipients can be placed on a waiting list. Sperm recipients also have the option of creating a “storage account,” in which they buy multiple vials of a particular donor’s sperm to guarantee its availability if they do not become pregnant during initial inseminations. In explaining this system, CryoCorp’s marketing director blurs the line between the donor and the donor’s sperm when she discussed the bank’s “inventory.”
We do limit the number of vials available on any given donor by limiting the amount of time a donor can be in the program. All of our specimens are available on a first-come, first-serve basis. We are dealing with human beings here, and the donors have finals and they don’t come in. And they go away for the summer. So our inventory is somewhat variable. So we suggest [recipients] open a storage account, which just costs a little bit additionally, and then purchase as many vials as they want.
    In each of the four programs, staffers identify the donor’s responsibilities as being like those in a job, but in the case of egg donation, it is understood to be much more meaningful than any regular job. At an informational meeting for potential egg donors, Creative Beginnings’ founder explained, “You get paid really well, and so you have to do all the things you do for a normal job. You have to show up at the right time and place and do what’s expected of you.” Her assistant added, “If you really simplify the math, it’s $4,000 for six weeks of work, and it’s maybea couple hours a day, if that. And to know that you’re doing something positive and amazing in somebody’s life and then getting compensated for it, you can’t ask for anything better than that.” Agency staffers simultaneously tell potential egg donors to think of donation “like a job” while also embedding the women’s responsibility in the “amazing” task of helping others.
    Contact between staff and donors does not necessarily end on the day of the egg retrieval or when sperm donors provide their last sample. Sperm donors must return to the bank for HIV testing six months after they stop donating, and men who agree to release identifying information to offspring must update their addresses with the bank indefinitely. If an egg donor performs well in her first cycle, then the agency will hope to match her with