e-magazine
Eyeing the Future
Chinese premier's Britain trip aims to clear hurdles and advance cooperation
Current Issue
· Table of Contents
· Editor's Desk
· Previous Issues
· Subscribe to Mag
Subscribe Now >>
Expert's View
World
Nation
Business
Finance
Market Watch
Legal-Ease
North American Report
Forum
Government Documents
Expat's Eye
Health
Science/Technology
Lifestyle
Books
Movies
Backgrounders
Special
Photo Gallery
Blogs
Reader's Service
Learning with
'Beijing Review'
E-mail us
RSS Feeds
PDF Edition
Web-magazine
Reader's Letters
Make Beijing Review your homepage
Top Story
Top Story
UPDATED: June 27, 2014 NO. 9 MARCH 1, 2012
Surrogacy Under Scrutiny
Surrogate births commissioned by a rich couple raise reproductive equality and legal concerns
By Wang Hairong
Share

A reporter with the Guangzhou-based Information Times has made undercover visits to the residences of surrogate mothers hired by Lu's agency. She found that the women who chose to be surrogate mothers did so because they needed money to improve their lives.

Of the three surrogate mothers the reporter talked to, two were divorced and have their own children, and wanted to make some money to raise their own children; while one woman was single and wanted to use her earning as surrogate mother to build a house for herself and then find her Mr. Right.

Legal void

Although the Ministry of Health bans medical institutions and personnel from performing surrogacy procedures, Lu said the ministry does not have the power to prevent the emergence of a private surrogacy market outside the formal medical system.

Dong of GFPA said that the regulation on assisted reproductive technology is an administrative rule rather than a law, and since there are ambiguities about the rule's enforcement, some people have taken advantage of this loophole to engage in commercial surrogacy.

After the story of the Guangzhou couple's octuplets was published, the Department of Health of Guangdong Province set up a special group to investigate the case, and said that those who violate existing regulations governing surrogacy would be seriously punished.

But the punishments currently stipulated in the regulations have been blamed for being insufficient to deter a medical institution from performing surrogacy procedures.

Those found to have violated existing regulations governing surrogacy will be given a warning, a fine of 30,000 yuan ($4,761) and administrative sanctions by relevant provincial health authorities.

Given the high profitability of surrogacy, the fine does not serve as a strong deterrent. The Southern Daily newspaper found that in a surrogacy procedure priced at 280,000 yuan ($44,444), hospitals make 60,000 yuan ($9,522) in operation and medicine costs.

The paper said that doctors performing surrogate procedures in Guangzhou usually receive as much as 60,000 yuan to 120,000 yuan ($19,044) for each baby.

Given the high financial rewards, some doctors, especially those in private hospitals, are prepared to perform the procedures under table.

Moreover, to circumvent the regulations entirely, some big surrogate agencies even send surrogate mothers they hire in China to get embryos implanted in foreign countries like India and Thailand where surrogacy is legal, said Lu.

Surrogacy involves many risks, such as possible birth defects, abortion, the safety of the surrogate mother and the possible divorce, or death of the intended parents during the surrogate mothers' pregnancy. Currently, the liabilities and compensations regarding any legal dispute are spelled out in contracts between surrogate agencies, surrogate mothers and intended parents.

For instance, the contract between Lu's agency and its surrogate mothers says that if a surrogate mother dies in the contract period, and policy authorities determine that the intended parents are liable, then the intended parents are liable to pay the surrogate mother's family an indemnity of 100,000 yuan ($15,873).

"But surrogacy contracts are invalid as commercial surrogacy procedures are illegal in China. So if one party breaches the contract, it is very difficult for the other party to receive legal protection," said Wan Xin, a director of the China Health Law Society.

The parent-child relationship in surrogate births is another legal and moral concern. If a surrogate mother decides to keep the baby, it is also difficult for the intended parents to take legal action.

Wan said that China's marriage law and inheritance law regard the woman delivering the baby as the legal mother.

Wan said that the government should actively make laws governing surrogacy. He suggested that surrogacy should be permitted only for couples of childbearing age who cannot conceive and deliver their baby through other means and who conform to the family planning policy.

Zhang Lizhu, a professor at the Beijing Medical University (now Peking University Health Science Campus) who cultivated the first test-tube baby on the Chinese mainland in 1988, is also on record saying that the government should strictly regulate surrogacy rather than simply outlawing it.

Zhang said that if a law permitting surrogacy is introduced, the Ministry of Health would be able to authorize a small number of qualified hospitals to perform surrogacy procedures and require such procedures to be approved by designated agencies and an ethical committee.

She said that in this regulated environment, surrogacy will not be abused and the technology will allow couples who cannot conceive naturally to realize their dreams of having children.

Email us at: wanghairong@bjreview.com

   Previous   1   2  



 
Top Story
-Deciding on a Second Child
-Surrogacy Under Scrutiny
-Leaving in Peace
-Experts: Cervical Cancer Could be Cured
-Alibaba IPO Looms
Related Stories
-Deciding on a Second Child
-Embryos in the Courthouse
 
Most Popular
在线翻译
About BEIJINGREVIEW | About beijingreview.com | Rss Feeds | Contact us | Advertising | Subscribe & Service | Make Beijing Review your homepage
Copyright Beijing Review All right reserved