With the rising cost of college tuition,many young people today are struggling to finance their education.Slaving away at a part-time job is one option, but advertisements innewspapers are publicizing an alternative for young women: donating anegg. Donors are offered between $3000 and $10,000 for a single egg, andfor those with certain desirable traits- like race, appearance, hightest scores, or athleticism - the compensation can be $20,000 or more.Figures like these can prove very tempting to a female studentstruggling to pay the bills. But what exactly does donating an egginvolve? Eggdonation is more or less the female equivalent of sperm donation-onlymore complicated, risky, and lucrative. Every year, thousands of babiesare born with the help of egg donations to women who, for a variety ofreasons, cannot become pregnant using their own eggs. The processinvolves removing eggs from a donor's ovaries and fertilizing them invitro. After being allowed to develop for a couple of days, three orfour embryos are then implanted into the uterus of the woman who willmother the child. Theprocess is usually coordinated by fertility clinics or egg 'brokers',who often do the research and place the ads. It was after seeing one ofthese ads that Julia Derek considered becoming a donor. After finishingcollege when she was 24 years old, she approached a fertility clinicand since then became a twelve-time donor. She says that money was hermain motivation for doing it - she was paid $3,500 per donation.