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Why bother with expensive IVF or IUI treatments for your fertility needs? Facebook Marketplace apparently has you covered.
What’s the most ridiculous thing you’ve heard today? Wait, here us out.
Thousands of people are currently looking for unregulated fertility treatments on – get this – Facebook Marketplace.
Now, it goes without saying that assisted conception is a sensitive topic, and the sad reality is that treatments are incredibly expensive and inaccessible to most. That being said, what we’re looking at here is both terrifying and outright illegal.
Sellers are currently touting their sperm like crop fertiliser, and Facebook is inadvertently serving as a hub for connecting freelance ‘donors’ with women seeking reproductive assistance. Unsurprisingly, these networks aren’t the most civilised you’ll find on social media.
Wading through heaps of abuse, you’ll find a host of bachelors vying to provide a service of natural insemination. This enthusiasm, borne of exploitation thinly veiled as altruism, has led to prospective mothers being sent heaps of unsolicited X-rated images and pressuring messages.
Those who have been officially screened for STDs are the exception, and none of the black market groups have been verified by the Human Fertilisation & Embryology Authority (HFEA).
Assessing sperm quality, despite the entrepreneurial big talk of sellers, is a lottery and there are no checks for underlying genetic disorders which could be inherited.
Again, there is a tragic side to this story. Despairing people defeated by the ludicrous costs and bureaucratic obstacles that come with recognised fertility treatments are either left to cope with the bad hand they’ve been dealt, or risk turning to illicit marketplaces.
