Woman booked on suspicion of selling her eggs

Police have booked a woman on suspicion of selling her ova to reproductively challenged women by lying that other women got pregnant using her eggs.

According to police, the suspect, 37, posted a fake testimonial that she conceived with a donor egg on an online community site that has many members who are women who have difficulty conceiving in 2014.

When people asked her for the donor’s contact information, she provided her own phone number.

She is suspected of meeting four reproductively challenged women and receiving a total of 20 million won from them on six occasions, and giving them the eggs.

Under the Korean law on bioethics and safety, a person can donate her eggs up to three times, but cannot sell them. Violators can face to up to three years in jail.

The suspect had her eggs extracted six times by using her sister and another person’s identities, and lying to the doctor that she planned to donate them, police said.

The Haeundae Police Station in Busan said Thursday they booked four women without detention on charges of violating the bioethics and safety law and fabrication of official documents.

Police informed the Ministry of Health and Welfare of the case, and asked the ministry to take steps to prevent such cases by improving the donor identity verification procedure.

“Reproductively challenged women may want ova donation, but ova sales in which the ‘donor’ demands money is a crime, and both the seller and the buyer are subject to punishment,” a police officer said.

By Kim So-hyun (sophie@heraldcorp.com)