I believed one of the write-ups is this article:
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Straits Times Interactive.
MARCH 19, 2004
Hope for childless as 15 offer eggs or sperm
'Surge' in potential donors after ST report on infertility
By Wong Sher Maine
EGG donor Karen (not her real name) winces when she recalls how she
had to
fight her fear of needles to give herself daily hormone injections,
but
smiles when she imagines the joy she has brought to childless
couples.
The 30-year-old management assistant is one of a handful of women
in
Singapore who has donated her eggs, and done it more than
once.
In 2002, the divorcee went under general anaesthetic in January and
June at
a private hospital's fertility clinic to have 31 eggs
extracted.
She was told they were divided among three couples - two
Singaporean and
one Indonesian Chinese.
She was not paid a single cent.
Karen wants to do it a third time at the Singapore General Hospital
(SGH)
to help childless couples recently featured in a Straits Times
report on
infertility.
In the past five years, SGH has come across only two walk-in egg
donors.
When asked why she was willing to go through what many women would
not even
consider, Karen said: 'What else am I going to do with my eggs?
They are
just flushed away every month.'
Since the Straits Times report was published a fortnight ago, 13
men and
two women have walked into SGH and KK Women's and Children's
Hospital to
offer their sperm or eggs. An SGH doctor described it as a 'surge'
because
the hospital had just three sperm donors and two egg donors last
year.
Both hospitals have patients queueing up for eggs and sperm, and
they have
to wait up to two years. Figures were not available from the
National
University Hospital, the remaining public hospital which accepts
such
donations.
All the potential donors are now undergoing physical and
psychological
tests to assess their eligibility to donate. According to Dr
Julianah Abu,
an SGH obstetrician and gynaecologist who runs the sperm bank
there, about
two-thirds are usually found to be suitable.
She added that the number of sperm donors, however, still outnumber
egg
donors because egg donation involves hormonal stimulation and an
operation.
Three potential donors, who had e-mailed The Straits Times asking
how they
could donate their eggs, explained that their desire to help
childless
couples outweighed whatever physical or emotional pain they would
have to
undergo.
A 33-year-old single, who works as a journalist in Malaysia, said:
'More
than organ donation, which is about extending life, egg donation
is
life-giving. I feel assured that the child will be specially cared
for,
since the couple had to go through so much to be parents.'
A 26-year-old part-time student, who loves children, said: 'My
heart goes
out to those who want kids badly but cannot have them.'
Karen said she equated egg donation with blood donation - she was
simply
helping others.
She dismissed the possibility that her children could end up
marrying one
another. 'The chances are so remote and anyway it is okay for
cousins to
marry.'
She decided to donate her eggs shortly after she began divorce
proceedings
against her husband, an aircraft engineer, at the end of 2000 when
she
discovered he had a mistress pregnant with his child. They did not
have any
children.
'I may never have the chance to marry again or have children but if
I can
help other couples, why not?,' she said. She reckoned that since
she had
good genes, with no family history of cancers or genetic illnesses,
she was
a good candidate.
She was also determined to 'experience and live life to the full'
after her
divorce, engaging in what she called 'dangerous activities' like
riding
motorcycles, operating cranes, sailing boats and flying
planes.
'Anything can happen to me. If so, I know I have done my part as a
human
being in reproducing, though I may not have been the one to bear
and look
after my child.'
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Copyright @ 2004 Singapore Press Holdings. All rights reserved.
