24 Caught for Human Ova Trading

Police have caught 20 women and four brokers on charges of trading in human ova.

Trading in human ova is banned under the bioethics law.

Police Monday said that they requested an arrest warrant for a 44-year-old broker, identified as Yoo, for pocketing about 6.5 billion won from 395 women since in 2003.

Yoo allegedly connected infertile Japanese women to Korean women for ova transactions via online Web sites both in Korea and Japan.

Police also booked three other brokers who worked with Yoo and 20 Korean women for selling and buying the eggs.

According to police, 11 women allegedly sold their eggs and nine women purchased them for 2.5 million won since the bioethics law went into effect in January.

Those who violate the law are subject to prison terms of up to three years according to the bioethics law, which bans any trade of ovum or sperm for money.

The law allows women to donate their ova to infertile couples or for scientific purposes but not sell or buy them.

A college student is believed to have provided...