Carol Suh

Race for Sale

A Chinese American woman weighs good will against personal mores in considering egg donoration.

IT WAS THE PHRASE "loving couple" that touched my heart one spring day during my senior year of college in 2007. Glancing over my dinner of Lucky Charms, jelly beans and Diet Coke, I noticed an advertisement in my newspaper: "Loving couple seeks an intelligent, healthy egg donor of Chinese descent. With SAT scores above 1450 and no major family medical issues, aged 21-32." Four years of pre-medical courses had impressed upon me the grief of infertility, which affects 1.2 million women a year. I decided to answer the ad.