Special Delivery: connecting American couples with egg donors

Some couples spend their life's savings trying to become pregnant. And it can break them, both financially and emotionally.

But a doctor in Richmond has figured out how to cut the cost of conceiving by tens of thousands of dollars.

Not only is he a fertility specialist, but he's now an exporter and broker, connecting American couples with egg donors overseas.

9 News Jennifer Ryan walks us through one of his 'Special Deliveries'.

Jennifer Ryan's report

"My husband and I stand at the crib and we just stare at them and still we're in disbelief", says new mother Kathy Butuceanu.

At age 52, Kathy says she's living her life in reverse.

"Honestly, we look at each other and can't believe this happened to us", she says.

It took half a lifetime and a 10,000 mile leap of faith to make Kathy and her new husband, 36-year old Cornell, parents.

"We can say we have two children; two boys for the price of one", laughs Cornell.

Not many clinics could do it for less than $20,000. In fact, most, when they found out I was over 50, wanted a premium", says Kathy.

A premium that pushed the price as high as $70,000.

"There was no way we could afford anything like that and I started to give up", says Kathy.

So how did 7-month old Christian and Nicholai come about?

Dr. Sanford Rosenberg, a fertility physician in Richmond, has a program called Global Art USA, where couples are promised at least 6 embryos for as little as $8,000, because his donor eggs come from Romania.

"The IVF procedure is performed in Europe with the husband's sperm on the donor that the patient has selected previously or the couple has selected previously then those embryos are cryopreserved and the courier brings them back here", says Dr. Rosenberg.

He says a large number of the eggs are from women from Romania, which coincidentally is Cornell's native country.

Drug costs and medical procedures are also a fraction of the price. Dr. Rosenberg says the donors rigorously screened according to U.S. standards. But the liability insurance for his export egg program is through the roof!

"I have a few months to make it work", says Dr. Rosenberg.

In other words, if more American doctors don't get on board to drive up the demand for the export program, it will fold.

"It's very sad that good intentions can be killed by bureaucracy", says Cornell.

As for Kathy, it's been the most wonderful answer.

"Sometimes I have to pinch myself and say I am a mother", she says.