The June issue of Wired carries a feature on the Booming Market for Human Breast Milk. You can read about the under-the-counter and over-the-Internet sale of a??liquid golda?? with a typical asking price in the range of $1 to $2.50 an ounce.
Herea??s a taste, from the article:
a?|a??rich, creamy breast milk!a?? a??fresh and fatty!a??a?| Some ship coolers of frozen milk packed in dry ice. Others deal locally, meeting in caf??s to exchange cash for commoditya?|
Late last year, the FDA issued a warning about feeding your child human milk from strangers. Still, the stuffa??s barely regulated.
milk containers, Wired Magazine, June 2011
As much as I think ita??s a good idea for women to breast feed their babies as best they can, I was pretty shocked to learn about this unregulated industry.?? Mainly because if a woman who donates milk is infected with a virus, like HIV or HTLV-1, the milk often contains the virus. The infant can absorb the virus and become infected. Feeding human breast milk from an unknown donor is kind of like giving a child a blood transfusion from a stranger, unchecked by any blood bank.
Ia??m not sure why Wired ran this story, which is admittedly interesting. Maybe ita??ll push the FDA to take a more aggressive stance on this matter, as it should.
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