Author and self-described "clinical sexologist" Sandra Margot will sue Internet auction giant eBay over their twice removing an auction page in which she wanted to auction herself as a surrogate mother, Margot told AVN Online.com June 26.
Margot said she finally received a reply from an eBay representative June 25, after earlier sending a pair of testy letters over the auction removal. "Their exact words were that they don't have a specific policy for this type of item," Margot said. "It was not something they encounter often. But there are times when an item is listed that they don't feel is appropriate of the site and, despite the good intentions (of the auction), they felt uncomfortable with the item as listed."
Margot first posted the auction June 19, but eBay took it down June 21. She restored the auction June 23, under a different username, and included mention of the legality of surrogacy. But eBay removed the auction again.
Reached for comment by AVN Online.com, eBay spokesman Kevin Pursglove said the auction site's specific prohibited or restricted items, which do not specify surrogate pregnancy as such an item, are as much a set of general guidelines for users to follow. But he added that eBay claims full discretion to remove any auction at any time
"As a marketplace with 15 million items available every day, it would be virtually impossible to lay out guidelines on every single item," he said. "These (guidelines) give a rough outline of the direction the company is taking. But eBay has full discretion and can remove any item at any time."
Pursglove himself didn't seem particularly offended by the idea of Margot's auction, but neither did he seem exactly shocked that a surrogate pregnancy auction might appear on the site. "Very little surprises me," he said.
But when he addressed Margot's auction specifically, he said she had other avenues she could use even if eBay rejected her auction. "We've removed items of sellers before and they just take it to another venue," he said.
That's not quite the way Margot sees it. "They don't have anywhere on their site saying we have the right to refuse service to anyone," she said. "Because they accept similar type advertising" – such as masseuse services and other "questionable but legal" items – "they're in a lot of hot water with this."
Margot said her cause is getting attention beyond the United States, saying she's been contacted by media representatives from Germany, Ireland, and Canada, among other countries. And she's been in touch with representatives from two of the United States's highest-profile attorneys, Gloria Allred and Geoffrey Fieger, the latter most familiar for defending Jack Kevorkian.
But she's not interested in the monetary damages. "If they are indeed denying me fair economic practice, and I'm entitled to so many dollars, so be it," Margot said. "I'm not going to shoot for $500 million. I'd even donate any money I get to a battered women's shelter here in Newhall. Not that I don't need the money, but I want to show people I'm not in this for the money, I just want my freaking ad back."
Margot has earlier told AVN Online that the surrogacy option started because she and her husband had had exceptionally great sex while she was pregnant, but they didn't want to have any more children. Then, she'd seen television reports on infertile couples and an idea struck her.
"With all the expense, all the anxiety, I shook my head and said isn't that just ironic, here I am, Fertile Myrtle, all my children are exceptional, and I can do it at the drop of a hat, and I love to have pregnant sex with my husband," she said earlier. "And then a light bulb went off in my head. I did some research. And I got the idea to be a surrogate to entertain my husband for nine months, and I could have great sex and get paid well and do something beautiful for a couple who can't have children."
