Selling body parts to make ends meet a sign of the times

From Sandy Sand in Digital Journal

Throughout the ages, people have been doing whatever is necessary to keep body and soul together. The world has seen everything from men selling off their daughters for a few cows and sheep, to women being prostitutes. Today, it's selling body parts.

Today, the cash-strapped people who earn meager salaries, or have run out of unemployment benefits and can't find work, are literally selling parts of themselves as their only means of carrying on.

Selling body parts is not a new idea, but it's being done more and more by more people today who never dreamed of doing such things.

For years, male college student have been using the bounty of their sperm to earn money for everything from books to beer busts. More people are taking lessons from them and giving up parts of themselves to meet expenses.

Selling off one's hair, sperm, eggs, blood or participating in medical studies may be one of the ultimate signs of just how bad the economy is for many people.

“Economic times are hard now, but for me they were also hard last semester and the semester before. This is a good way where I am making money and not having to work a full-time job,” Melanie Burnett, a kinesiology (study of how the body moves) major at California State University, Northridge.

Last year Burnett earned $6,000 selling her eggs to a fertility clinic, and this spring she expects to earn a similar amount.

Fertility clinics in and around Los Angeles are reporting an up-tick in business. California Cryobank reported that during the past 18 months, donations by men are up 15 percent, and egg donations up by 25 percent.

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[ via Aftermath News ]