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A peek into China's underground surrogate market

china.org.cn / chinagate.cn by Chen Xia, November 11, 2016 Adjust font size:

A growing number of Chinese couples have asked for test-tube babies after the country abandoned the decades-long one-child policy in 2015. However, due to some special reasons, some of them have turned to illegal surrogate clinics for help.

An undercover investigation conducted by the Southern Metropolis Daily based in Guangzhou, capital of Guangdong Province in south China, gave us a glimpse of the secrete surrogate industry.

Although the practice is not allowed under current Chinese laws, illegal advertisements can be found in the corners of many large reproductive medical centers if you look for them patiently enough.

Xiaoke is the codename of a surrogate broker. On her WeChat Moments page, there are photos of many beautiful young girls labeled as "egg provider." Potential customers can find the girls’ basic information like blood type and height, and sometimes even information like name (codename in most cases), age, ethnic group, hometown, education background, major of study and menstrual period. Many of the girls are allegedly studying in top universities in the province.

Egg donation, which is a big headache for legal medical institutions due to high legal and professional barriers, is only a matter of money for Xiaoke. On her WeChat page, the eggs of girls with extremely appealing CVs can be priced at more than 100,000 yuan (US$14,761.02).

As for doctors, Xiaoke said all operations would be done by qualified doctors from the First Affiliated Hospital and the Sixth Affiliated Hospital of the Sun Yat-sen University, two of the most famous hospitals in the province. The only difference is that customers can bypass the annoying queues in overcrowded hospitals.

Aspiring parents must pay an introduction fee before meeting any doctors. The fee for a doctor surnamed Feng stood at 10,000 yuan (US$1,476.1), and Xiaoke said it was already 50 percent off due to growing market competition.

On Baidu Tieba, one of China’s largest online forums, there is a group discussion on the topic of test-tube babies. There, one can also find the advertisements of surrogate service providers, who boast that they can handle all needs of customers, including baby gender selection.

In Guangdong Province, there are 28 medical institutions with official certification to conduct test-tube operations. Liu Jianqiao, a doctor at the Third Affiliated Hospital of Guangzhou Medical University, said, "The 28 hospitals are fully capable of receiving the couples going to illegal clinics, but we won’t conduct any operation against ethics or medical conventions, such as surrogacy."

Besides the refusal of handling surrogate operations, these hospitals also have strict rules on sperm and egg supply, whereas things are much easier in illegal clinics. Anything, from egg supply to baby gender selection, is not a problem as long as you can afford it.

The difficulty in obtaining sperm and egg donation is one of the things driving aspiring parents to illegal clinics. Currently, there is only one sperm bank in Guangdong. Due to a lack of donors, patients have to wait for a long period of time to get what they need.

Eggs are even more difficult to get, as they mainly depend on the donation of women who underwent test-tube operations and had extra eggs. Liu Jianqiao said, "If patients with extra eggs are unwilling to donate them, we have no other options. We can’t buy eggs as illegal clinics do."

With strong demand but no sufficient supply, the underground "egg donation" trade came into being. In many shantytowns, its advertisements can be found everywhere. Some women, even teenage girls, have joined in the business despite the huge risks. On Oct. 7, a 17-year-old girl in Guangzhou was reported to have made a narrow escape from death caused by severe internal bleeding after an illegal clinic took 21 eggs from her in one operation.

Chinese authorities are mulling solutions to deal with the situation. In the final amended Law on Population and Family Planning that came into effect on Jan. 1, the proposed legal ban on the use of surrogate mothers was scraped.

"We think surrogacy is a very complicated and sophisticated thing. We need to further discuss it," said Zhang Chunsheng, director of the legislative affairs department with the National Health and Family Planning Commission (NHFPC).

At the same time, the NHFPC has continued the crackdown on illegal surrogate clinics and the trades of sperms, eggs, fertilized eggs and fetus, and sought to improve the management of assisted reproductive techniques.