BUCHAREST, Romania (AP) — Police have questioned 30 people and searched the homes of six employees of a private fertility clinic who are suspected of illegally trafficking human eggs and selling them to Israeli couples with fertility problems at five times the price.
The sale of human eggs for in vitro fertilization is illegal in Romania.
Police said Tuesday the clinic employees harvested the eggs from Romanian women aged 18 to 30, some of whom were students, paying them between euros 600 and 800 ($450 and $600), and that the eggs were then sold for euros 3,000 to 4,000 ($2,255 to $3,005) at the unidentified clinic in Bucharest.
The suspects, both Romanian and Israeli citizens, include doctors, nurses, and embryologists.
Police said in a statement that most of the people who benefited from the service were Israeli women who visited Romania for artificial insemination.
