Episode 3

Alev Scott had just given birth to her first child, during lock-down in Amsterdam, when she found herself over producing milk. Anxious not to waste this precious, nutrient rich liquid she began to look into the possibility of donation. Soon she found herself in a bewildering world of online marketplaces, and gradually she came to turn her attention to an industry which commodifies every aspect of the maternal body.

She describes how, ‘'The fertility industry is the only legal industry where one person’s biological bad luck can be another person’s gain. A woman who can carry a pregnancy to term can choose to earn money doing exactly that for someone else; a woman who has plenty of breast milk can sell it; a woman with a healthy ovarian reserve can sell her eggs. This is a more direct, quantifiable form of biological luck than that of a professional athlete or model. The trade is as basic as it gets, and despite its ethical complexities it is largely legal, as opposed to its nearest comparable, large-scale trade: human organ trafficking."

From milk to eggs, to the hiring out of a placenta in the form of surrogacy Alev delves into the commercial, and sometime altruistic, transactions that are fuelled by the age-old desire to have children.

Professor Peter Frankopan describes it as "A powerful, intimate and disturbing exploration of the hidden markets built on women's bodies".

Written by Alev Scott
Abridged and Produced by Jill Waters
Read by Hattie Morahan

The Waters Company for BBC Radio 4