Short on cash, some sell own body products

www.msnbc.msn.com ^ | Dec. 5, 2008 | JoNel Aleccia

[Publius804]

Short on cash, some put a price on themselves

Lean times spurs interest in payment for sperm, eggs, plasma — even hair

By JoNel Aleccia

Fri., Dec. 5, 2008

Before this fall, it might not have occurred to Michael Aylesworth to swap his sperm for money.

But faced with rising bills, a dwindling budget and a fractured economy, the 30-year-old Seattle man took stock of some very personal assets — and decided to sell.

“I did it because I’m a student and I’m always broke,” said Aylesworth, who spent several delicate minutes in a small room at the Seattle Sperm Bank last month.

Apparently, he’s not alone. Seeking quick cash in a tanking financial market, would-be sellers of a variety of body products — sperm, eggs, blood plasma, even human hair — are filling waiting rooms and swamping agencies with inquiries.

Increasingly, industry officials say people are hoping to trade spare body fluids, tissues and other parts for payments that can range from $20 to $50 a pop for blood plasma to $60 to $100 for a shot of sperm, $200 for a shiny ponytail and up to $7,000 for a fertile egg.

At the Seattle Sperm Bank alone, donor applications have tripled from 50 to 150 a month during this financially precarious autumn, staff members said, while officials at egg donation agencies from Chicago to Houston estimate that calls are up at least 30 percent over last year.

“I am seeing a huge increase,” said Mary Fusillo, director of The Donor Solution, an agency in Texas. She says egg donor applications have jumped in the past six weeks from two to five a day to 20. “It’s people who suddenly see it as a viable way to make a chunk of change all at one time.”

[SunkenCiv]

Hey, all I’d like to know is, where do I go to, uh, make the donation. Actually sell the “donation”...

[SunkenCiv]

oh, I guess it’s not related...

Student Suspended After Needle Pricks
wlky.com | 12/03/08 | Ann Bowdan/WLKY
Posted on 12/05/2008 4:04:47 AM PST by TornadoAlley3
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2143330/posts

[Tainan]

.....I’ve wasted millions....