"Eggs for sale": the latest controversy in reproductive technology: couples are paying lofty fees to egg donors with the perfect combination of brains and beauty.

• Author: Blackley, Michelle
• Position: Life in America

CUTTING-EDGE reproductive technologies and infertile couples are providing college women with thousands of dollars for something small in exchange--their eggs. "My friends and I see the ads, and have talked about it," said Shannon Grant, a senior at the University of Connecticut. "But we would only do it for the money."

Increasingly over the past few years, advertisements from fertility clinics and couples have been pleading for young women to help the latter's dreams of having a child come true. They are offering thousands of dollars, including payment of the medical and psychological procedures the donors must endure, in order to entice them. Uneasiness is growing about using money to attract girls who are struggling with the spiraling costs of higher education.

Susan Zucker, who has been the advertising manager at the Yale Daily News for 28 years, points out that "Only in the past few years have I seen these ads go in the paper [such as] from Options, a nationwide fertility clinic." Donating eggs may seem like an easy way to earn money and help meet the demands of rising costs of college, but some fertility professionals are reluctant to advertise in campus newspapers. "We already get too many responses from young girls, but we decided only [recently] to start advertising in college newspapers," notes Karen Synesiou, director of Egg Donor Inc., Beverly Hills, Calif. "Just by talking to them I can usually tell if they are going to be good donors of flake off."

There are doctors out there who are making designer genes, with couples paying lofty fees for the pefect combination of brains and beauty. The average profile of the donors show them to be highly social, outgoing, the type who join sororities, and risk-takers, Synesiou indicates. Some are impressed with how interested the prospective parents are in them and see their excitement. At that point, it's about more than just the money.

Egg Donor Inc. and Options advertisements are commonly seen in the Yale Daily News. About 200 college women respond per ad, according to the paper. "They usually read something like, 'Nice, loving couple looking for a Jewish student, with a 1,500 SAT score and 5'9",' "says Rebecca Dana, editor-inchief of the student newspaper. "You usually see people laugh at the ads in the dining halls."

It is that kind of response from women in their early 20s that Synesiou is afraid of. "Sometimes, an older donor is better, because they are more mature. They are more likely to write down all of the important information, like being honest with who they will tell they donated eggs, and their medical history."

Mary, who asked that her real name not be used, was 22 and already a mother when she donated her eggs. The West Haven resident went through Connecticut Fertility Associates in Bridgeport, having learned about the program from a friend who is employed at the clinic. After weeks of psychological screenings, physical examinations, and hormone injections, Mary underwent minor, sedative surgery in which about 3(:) eggs were harvested from her ovaries. She received $7,500 in return, a common rate for a woman's eggs to day. "It was like donating blood. It's just DNA," she said in a phone interview. "It's not a baby until it's fertilized."

About 40 women a month apply to Connecticut Fertility Associates. According to...