Man arrested on charges of selling ova on internet

Police said on Saturday it arrested a man on charges for illegally trading ova on the internet here and in Japan, in the first case of its kind in Korea.

Six women were also booked without detention for allegedly selling or buying human eggs at about 3 million won or 4 million won, the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency said. The broker, identified by his family name Kim, took an additional 500,000 won to 1.5 million won from the buyer in each case.

The sellers, mostly university students in their early 20s, needed money while the buyers were infertile couples wanting children. The three women who bought the eggs are now pregnant.

Investigators will also investigate one Korean woman and two Japanese who are alleged to have sold and bought ova, respectively. The price of ovum of a Korean woman is known to be cheaper than Japanese woman`s.

Kim, age 27, set up four internet forums on portal websites in May and arranged ova trading six times, the police said.

The ova seller and the infertile couple met at a gynecologist and pretended that she donated eggs. Under life-ethics law, which took effect this year, trading ova is illegal, whereas donating ova is legal.

The couples took into account the appearance and academic background of ova sellers, the police said. Police said that the couples chose a person who did not have natural double eyelids, because a child cannot have a double eyelid if either of the parents does not have it. "They are afraid that their child may notice," said Choi Hyong-uk, head of the cyber investigation team at the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency.

Police found evidence that ova are widely sold on the internet and found 31 more cases of ova deals which have not been completed yet.

Kim also introduced surrogate mothers to infertile couples five times in return for 30 million won each, the police said. In each case, he raked in 15 million won and the other 15 million went to the surrogate mother.

However, Kim is not subject to punishment for his dealing of surrogate mothers because Korea has no law related to surrogate mothers. The government said the law was not prepared because the issue is controversial.

In response to the clandestine ova trading, the government is considering setting up a system to arrange an ova exchange without the trading of money. The Ministry of Health and Welfare has been conducting research into the system and the results will be announced in March 2006.

The government is also considering revising the fledging life-ethics law that would enforce strict punishment on brokers. Under the current law, traffickers of human eggs may face up to a two-year prison term and 30 million won in fines, whereas buyers and sellers may face up to a three-year prison term.

One out of seven couples or 635,000 couples in Korea is infertile, according to the Ministry of Health and Welfare.

(hjjin@heraldm.com)



By Jin Hyun-joo