India tightened its egg donation rules, creating a vibrant black market for sellers

By Diaa Hadid

Published January 20, 2026 at 4:49 AM EST

India radically tightened its rules on egg donation to make it altruistic, but that move triggered a vibrant black market for human eggs.

NPR News

Diaa Hadid

Diaa Hadid chiefly covers Pakistan and Afghanistan for NPR News. She is based in NPR's bureau in Islamabad. There, Hadid and her team were awarded a Murrow in 2019 for hard news for their story on why abortion rates in Pakistan are among the highest in the world.

See stories by Diaa Hadid

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