Surrogacy is not allowed in China
Demand and interests have contributed to a long-standing underground industry
The surrogacy industry chain is composed of the demander, surrogacy agencies, surrogate mothers, doctors who perform surrogacy operations, and hospitals that issue birth certificates
They either pursue interests, have real needs, or have selfish purposes
Children, on the other hand, are manufactured "commodities", which can choose gender, single birth or multiple birth
If defective, it may be abandoned
A "production line" at the end of August this year, surging journalists secretly visited a number of commercial surrogacy agencies in Guangzhou, Shenzhen and other places
They found that due to the impact of the epidemic, it was blocked to seek surrogacy abroad, the orders of domestic surrogacy agencies increased significantly, and the compensation and commission of surrogacy mothers (known as "egg girls" in the industry) also rose
After some surrogate agencies are checked, they even change places to "go back to business"
Behind the promise of intermediary agencies to "guarantee smooth progress", there are "egg changing", concealing fetal diseases, birth defects and other chaos, as well as ethical and legal risks
An "international pregnancy Assistance Center for inheritance of children" claims that it mainly provides surrogacy services to overseas reproductive hospitals for domestic customers with surrogacy needs
"Gender can be included, but success can be included
" The agreement provided by them includes two packages of 580000 yuan and 880000 yuan, both of which promise that customers can hold a healthy baby boy within two years
The former is 300000 yuan cheaper and does not guarantee success, which means that the first surrogacy is not successful, and additional fees are required to restart the process
A senior surrogate agent revealed that on this "production line", 20000 children are born in Guangzhou every year
"650000 packages go smoothly, and 900000 packages give birth to a son
" "if the fetus is found to be malformed, the surrogate mother will be killed, and the customer will only 'receive the goods'" -- this is a commitment given by a number of commercial surrogate agencies in Shanghai with clearly marked prices
In September this year, the reporter of the Southern Metropolis Daily made an unannounced visit to investigate a number of commercial surrogacy agencies in Shanghai and found that most of these agencies used "health information agencies" for industrial and commercial registration
A number of surrogate agencies told reporters that their clients came from all over the country, and many clients also wanted to have children when they lost their wealth
Every time a healthy baby is successfully "produced", the intermediary can make a profit of at least 200000 yuan
All kinds of accidents that may occur to the fetus and surrogate mother during the service period are regarded as "commercial risks", and they say "money can be used to settle them"
In the reporter's investigation of unpredictable "risks", the heads of several surrogacy agencies did not want to mention the possible "risks" in the process of surrogacy, but said that "there is no absolute safety"
According to an insider, surrogacy itself is an "underground industry", and it is difficult for surrogacy institutions to achieve 99
99% authenticity and transparency
Among them, there are more "frauds" against customers, mainly including "egg changing" and "concealing the illness of infants"
The reporter found that in a contract dispute case tried by the people's Court of Zixing City, Hunan Province in May this year, a couple found that the child's hearing was weak after they paid more than 740000 yuan to hold the baby in a surrogate agency called "pregnancy and birth international", so they took the other party to court to ask for a refund of the fees paid
The head of the surrogate agency argued that the child was healthy when he was taken away, otherwise he would not be taken away, and issued the collar
After hearing the case, the court held that the surrogacy agreement signed by both parties obviously took the child as the object of commodity trading for the purpose of profit, so the surrogacy contract violated public order, good customs and social morality, and should be recognized as invalid contract according to law, and finally rejected the appeal of the above-mentioned couple
A senior surrogate agent said that a case of cerebral palsy left him with a deep memory
A client's surrogate child didn't cry
Later, it was found that the hospital had a medical accident during delivery: the child was entangled by the umbilical cord at birth, and the surrogate mother was unwilling to choose caesarean section
The nurse kept pulling out, and the child's brain suffered from hypoxia, leading to cerebral palsy
At first, the guest was unwilling to have children
The intermediary returned all the money to him
At first, the other party didn't accept it
Later, he "took the child away while crying"
There are also customers who temporarily repent of not having children
A customer in Xiamen paid money, but when the child was about to be born, the customer repented and did not want to have another child, and disappeared directly
No way, the intermediary will eventually give the child to others
Ethical and emotional dilemmas that cannot be solved in depth on September 18 this year, the reporter searched the Chinese judicial document website with the keyword "surrogacy" and found that since 2012, 338 disputes and judgments related to surrogacy have been found, and they have shown a rapid growth trend in the past two years, including 79 in 2019 and 62 in the first eight months of 2020
In 2012, Zhang from Xiamen found Xiaoling as her surrogate child through an intermediary
Zhang pays Xiaoling's living expenses 1 per month
50000 yuan, accumulating more than 200000 yuan successively
But afterwards, Xiaoling refused to give the child to Zhang and his wife
In the end, the court of Siming District, Xiamen City decided to give Xiaoling custody of the illegitimate daughter
Zhang not only had no custody, but also had to pay 3000 yuan of child support every month, accumulating 640000 yuan
In january2017, because his own visit was refused after the surrogate baby was taken away, Zhao, as a surrogate mother, took the child's father Li to court, saying that he was willing to refund Li's corresponding fees and asked the child to live with him
In 2017, the surrogate mother Xie in Chongqing and her biological father Gao went to court, asking to visit and live with her child
The underground industry of surrogacy was brought to the surface because of various disputes
On the issue of surrogacy supervision, the reporter consulted a number of lawyers
Dengqianqiu, a lawyer from Beijing Zhongwen law firm, believes that the development of the underground surrogacy market, on the one hand, will bring about a thorny ethical dilemma of different "oocytes" and "biological mothers", on the other hand, it will also lead to such criminal problems as the raising of defective babies by surrogacy, legal disputes caused by illegal surrogacy, and even the sale of women and children
To crack down on the chaos of underground surrogacy, Du Jie, a lawyer from Beijing Long'an law firm, believes that in addition to the stricter supervision of medical institutions and doctors by the health department, the public security, industry and commerce, and industry and information technology departments need to work together to crack down on websites and surrogacy intermediaries that exist and disseminate harmful information
