The founder of a UK-based website which links sperm donors with potential parents today launched a new venture involving human eggs.
The entrepreneur behind them is John Gonzalez, who set up the sperm donor site ManNotIncluded.com in June 2002, which has so far resulted in six births.
Now Mr Gonzalez, 41, a former City head-hunter, has unveiled a site to help supply eggs, inevitably named WomanNotIncluded.com.
After introducing the sperm site he was cast as an unlikely crusader for gay rights because it was aimed at helping lesbians and single women conceive, as well as heterosexual couples.
But the site also drew a furious response from family campaigners, some religious groups and ethical medical watchdogs and he was accused of putting mothers and babies at risk of diseases including HIV - accusations he denied.
Similar to the sperm site, his new venture seeks infertile women looking for an egg donor to pay a subscription fee and then pay extra for each search of the database and the introductions they receive.
Arrangements are then made for the woman to anonymously donate her eggs at a fertility clinic where screening, IVF and implantation take place, all at extra cost to the recipient.
The database is global, meaning a couple wishing to use a donor from another country could buy the eggs without the same limits on expense costs. Mr Gonzalez said would-be recipients paid a subscription fee of £145 and could pay between £600 and £1,200 for each matching with a donor.
For the launch around 40 donors have signed up, mostly from the UK but also in Italy and France.
The donor receives expenses, but in the UK they are not allowed to be paid directly for their eggs under the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) regulations.
A spokeswoman for the HFEA said while recipients were not allowed to pay for eggs, minimal expenses could be paid to donors. These cover travel expenses, accommodation and childminding costs. They are also allowed to pay up to £50 a day in "financial loss allowance".
The spokeswoman said the expenses were low because egg donation should be altruistic and not done purely for financial gain. Mr Gonzalez says his donors supply details about their health history, ethnic origin and hair and eye colour, and can also include information about their academic achievements.
Criticism of the sperm site focused on fears of disease. As it involved fresh rather than frozen sperm, some argued this meant that it would not last long enough to take into account the three-month incubation period for HIV.
After the launch of the sperm site, Patrick Cusworth, of anti-abortion charity Life, told the Sun newspaper: "This is a grubby little process that demeans all concerned."
However Mr Gonzalez insists that all his donors are properly and regularly tested and defended the service his sites offered, saying they were committed to helping all women, regardless of age, sexuality or marital status.
The businessman, who is based in Harley Street, central London, said: "Although there are a few self-help groups set up on the internet to help people looking for egg donors these are fragmented. We believe this is the world's first comprehensive online provider of human eggs.
"With ManNotIncluded we started off with very few donors and recipients but now there are more than 9,000 sperm donors registered."
