Typing "sell your body for cash" into an internet search engine is not an activity for the faint-hearted. But amid the deluge of questionable adult services on offer, you will soon chance upon companies offering money for body parts and/or fluids. Such a trade is illegal in the UK but, due to the severe shortage in egg and sperm donors in this country – made worse by the lifting of donor anonymity in 2005 – there are now calls to start paying donors again to encourage greater numbers (currently, donors can receive a maximum of £250 in expenses). So what else are people around the world harvesting from their body for cash – and how much can they expect to earn?
Blood
In the UK, there is a tradition of donating blood as part of your civic duty, but in some countries donors are paid. A clinic in Stuttgart, Germany, offers roughly £20 a donation, but puts a cap on how much blood each individual can donate over a period of time. In the US, there are around 400 for-profit blood plasma centres offering $9-$35 a donation – but if you have piercings "other than your earlobes", or a tattoo, you will have to call ahead first. Some US medical centres also pay $50 for every "donation" of blood platelets.
Bone marrow
In the US, a handful of cancer research institutions pay for bone marrow and white blood cells as part of clinical trials. It was reported in 2005 that a Californian medical centre was paying local students $200 for 50cc of bone marrow, while for a four-day procedure to remove white blood cells, it paid $750.
Kidneys
Last week, it was widely reported in the US that a suspect in a New Jersey corruption investigation told an undercover officer that he had been trading human organs for 10 years, and that the going price for a kidney was $150,000. It highlighted the notorious and illegal international trade for kidneys, with reports of organs being secured from donors in India and Pakistan for as little as $1,000-$2,000, only to be sold on for huge profit to recipients in the west. In theory, organs such as livers and spleens can also be harvested for saleable material, but reports of this are extremely rare.
Sperm
In Romania, where payments are legal, a clinic in the western city of Timisoara is offering donors the equivalent of £35 a donation, while around 100 car workers at a factory in Campulung have pledged to sell sperm to a fertility clinic to try to reduce their company's debt. In the US, a donor can earn $40-$120 a donation. But there are conditions: he must be under 45 and pass an extensive health questionnaire (for example, no mental illnesses, drug taking, STDs, family history of cancer etc). Some sperm banks only accept donors with a certain IQ level or above.
Eggs
According to Lisa Jardine, head of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority, British women might expect to receive a fee equating to the cost of one IVF treatment cycle – around £3,000. In India, where the market is unregulated, a donor egg can be sold for anything from £500 to £7,000 depending on how ethical the clinic is, and how well educated the donor is. In the US, the classified ads website Craigslist is currently running an advert in the New York area that states: "Jewish Egg Donor Needed by Loving Jewish Couple $20,000+ All Expenses Paid not an agency." Most donors are expected to be between 18 and 30, and they must expect to take hormone-boosting drugs, before 10-15 eggs are extracted via a needle while the donor is under sedation.
Breast milk
Some lactating mothers choose to donate their breast milk or colostrum to the local neonatal unit (ask your doctor for the nearest milk bank); however, it is not unknown for mothers to sell their milk in the local classified ads or online. Listings sites such as Craigslist ban users from advertising bodily fluids, but that doesn't stop some people from placing ads requesting them, both here and abroad.
Hair
Wig-makers in the UK pay goodmoney for well-groomed hair. Our main hair buyer, Banbury Postiche (Wigs UK), pays £3 an ounce if your hair is 6-12in long and £5 an ounce if it is more than 12in long. In many other countries, though, the sums earned from selling human hair are far more trivial, and many women are tricked and exploited into cutting off their hair. The pop singer Jamelia vowed never to wear hair extensions made from human hair again after travelling to India and Russia to investigate the trade for a BBC documentary earlier this year.