‘Illegal human egg trade’,
POLICE have been asked to investigate the alleged illegal trade in human eggs in the TRNC, after an exposé in a Turkish daily newspaper.
The mass-circulation Hürriyet claimed Turkish women were selling their eggs illegally to North Cyprus fertility clinics.
The revelations last Friday led the TRNC Health Ministry to lodge a formal complaint with police and request that an investigation be launched.
Hürriyet correspondent Ömer Erbil uncovered the alleged trade in an interview with a 21-year-old Turkish woman, identified only as “Dilara K”, who claimed she came to the TRNC every two months to sell her eggs to a clinic which then used them to help childless customers to have babies.
“Many other women come to North Cyprus for the same purpose,” she was reported as saying.
“Tests are done by a specified laboratory and then medicines I have to use are delivered to my home by a cargo company.
“When I am ready for egg donation, I fly to the TRNC with a ticket that is supplied online and each time I am picked up at Ercan airport by a private car and driver who takes me to the test-tube baby centre.”
The report said women, usually aged between 18 and 28, were paid between 2,000TL and 4,000TL for their eggs, which were then sold on for between 4,500 and 6,000 euros — with the final selling prices stated in internet promotional material. Donors are required to sign a statement pledging not to make any future parenthood claims.
Following publication of the Hürriyet report, Health Minister Filiz Besim condemned the existence of any such activities as illegal.
“Under TRNC law, egg donation should be carried out as a voluntary act without making a profit,” she said, adding that such sales would be classed as “organ trade”.
Dr Besim said police had been asked to look into the claims and would be trying to identify the IVF clinic at the centre of them, alleged to be in Lefkoşa.