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.
将“出售你的身体以换取现金”这些字输入到互联网搜索引擎的那个小框框里，其搜索结果可不是胆小者所能承受的。但是，就在搜索结果里那些如“黄”河之水汹涌呈现的成人服务之中，你很快就会偶然发现一些公司在出钱收购身体部位以及体液。这种生意在英国是非法的，但由于英国极其缺乏精子和卵子捐助者（2005年英国取消了捐助者的匿名权，更加令这种短缺状况恶化），现在有人呼吁英国再次开始向捐助者支付报酬，以鼓励涌现出更多的捐助者（目前，英国的捐助者可以得到最高为250英镑的费用）。那么，世界各地的人们在出售自己身体的哪些部位以获取现金——以及他们相应地能期望赚取多少呢？
血液
在英国，献血作为公民义务的一部分是一种传统，但在一些国家，献血者是有报酬的。德国斯图加特的一间诊所每次向献血者支付约20英镑，但为每个人在一段时间内的允许献血量设置了上限。在美国，大约有400个营利性的血浆中心，一次献血报酬为9至35美元，但如果你身上除了耳洞之外还有其他部位的穿孔或者有纹身的话，你得先提前打电话问明情况。美国的一些医疗中心还为每次的血小板“捐赠”支付50美元。
骨髓
在美国，少数几家癌症研究机构为骨髓和白血球的捐助支付报酬，以提供给临床试验之用。据报道，在2005年，美国加州的某医疗中心为本地学生捐助的50cc骨髓支付200美元，而对为期4天采集白血细胞的过程则支付750美元。
肾脏
上周，美国媒体广泛报道，在新泽西州某腐败调查案中，一名犯罪嫌疑人告诉卧底探员说，他买卖人体器官已10年了，肾脏的价格是15万美元。这明显地揭露了臭名昭著而又非法的国际肾脏贸易，据报道，这些肾脏往往是在印度和巴基斯坦以低至1000美元至2000美元的价格买进，没想到却在西方国家以高价推销，牟取暴利。从理论上讲，像肝脏和脾脏之类的器官也可以成为售卖物，但这方面的报道倒是极其罕见。
精子
在罗马尼亚，付费捐助是合法的，西部城市蒂米什瓦拉（timisoara）的一间诊所为每位捐助者支付相当于35英镑的报酬，而坎普龙（campulung）某家工厂约100名汽车工人则许诺出售精子给一家生育诊所，以此来减轻公司债务。在美国，每位捐助者每次捐助可赚取40美元至 120美元。但这也有一些条件：捐助者必须45岁以下，并能通过一份详尽的健康调查表（例如没有精神疾病、不吸毒，无性病，无癌症家族史等）。一些精子银行仅接受具有一定智商水平或以上的捐助者。
卵子
据英国人类受精与胚胎管理局（human fertilisation and embryology authority）主席丽莎·贾汀（lisa jardine）透露，英国捐助卵子的妇女可能会获得相当于一个体外受精（ivf）疗程成本的费用——大约3000英镑。在印度，那里的市场尚无管制，一个捐助的卵子可以卖到500英镑至7000英镑不等，成交价格取决于相关诊所的职业道德水平以及捐助者的教育水平。在美国，分类广告网站 craigslist目前正在纽约地区做着这么一个广告：“一对相亲相爱的犹太夫妇需要犹太裔卵子捐助者，酬金20,000美元，全部费用已付，非中介。”大多数捐助者的年龄需在18岁至30岁之间，她们还需服用促进激素的药物，之后这些捐助者在镇静剂的作用下，由医生通过一根针从她们身上提取10至 15个卵子。
母乳
一些正在分泌乳汁的母亲选择将自己的母乳或初乳捐捐赠给当地的新生儿中心（欲知离你最近的牛奶银行，请询问你的医生）；但是，母亲将自己的母乳在当地的分类广告或网上出售这种事也不算是新闻了。一些像 craigslist之类的广告网站禁止用户刊登有关体液的广告，但这并不能阻止一些人在英国及国外刊登求购这类体液的广告。
头发
英国的假发制造商对梳理整洁的头发给予不错的报酬。在英国，头发的主要买家是班伯里颇斯提奇（英国假发）（banbury postiche，wigs uk），假果你的头发是6至12英寸长，它会支付每盎司3英镑，假如是12英寸以上，则支付每盎司5英镑。然而在许多其他国家，出售头发的所得少得可怜，许多妇女遭到欺骗和利用而剪掉了她们的头发。歌手杰米莉娅（jamelia）今年早些时候前往印度和俄罗斯，为英国广播公司(bbc）的一个纪录片进行有关头发贸易的调查，之后，她便发誓永远不再戴由人类头发制成的接发。