/Real Story/ Surrogacy in China-Part 1

Many of China’s married couples are experiencing fertility problems. The country saw its infertility rate rise from 12 per cent in 2007 to 18 per cent in 2020, meaning that one out of every 5.6 couples of childbearing age faces difficulties making a baby, according to the latest national reproductive health survey.

So how can some couples, usually those with higher incomes, have children? Especially when considering traditional Chinese culture and familial pressures to have children.

That’s where the surrogacy comes in and it starts with IVF.

The demand for surrogacy

As China’s economy grew, the number of rich and middle-class couples also grew. Some of these ladies cannot or do not want to give birth by themselves. In addition, an emerging of open LGBT couples created a growing demand for surrogates. Some research suggests that around 10% of population in China is LGBT and many of these couples will want their own children from surrogates.  

In the beginning of this year, a famous Chinese actress named Zheng Shuang, 30, was involved in a child surrogate abandonment saga. It has been one of the biggest celebrity scandals in China this year. Zheng Shuang had hired two surrogate mothers from America, one for each child, but was then accused of abandoning them in the States with her former partner, who is also the father of the children.

Surrogacy agents in America have previously stated that Chinese customers takes up 40% of all their customers. This institution in the States has a strict and thorough checking system. So, the surrogate mothers must be mentally and physically healthy and they receive a good payment for their service.

How about surrogate mothers in China?

Here are some stories I would like to share our readers.

Lu, 25 years old, didn’t know where the car was going. A blindfold covered her eyes, her phone was taken away and the car’s windows were covered with black material. There was other 3 girls with her. Three of the girls had the same purpose to become surrogate mother from egg donors. While the other girl, who didn’t want to give birth but was desperate to earn some money, was going to be an egg donor for another rich couple. All three of the surrogate mothers will receive 180,000 RMB each from an agency after the paying couple received the baby. Though, the buyer actually paid 700,000 for the whole procedure through the agency.

The remaining fee was kept and split among the agency and the doctors involved in the process.  Surrogacy in China operates in grey area where is not officially approved but also not illegal.

Lu fell asleep during the long journey. She didn’t know how much time had passed. Finally, the car stopped, and they could remove their blindfolds. The driver told them that they were somewhere near Beijing. Lu and the other ladies were not allowed to know the exact location  in other to minimize the risk of others finding out about what was going on at this house and reporting them.   They were going to stay in a big 2-floor house. The first floor was the living room and the kitchen. While the second floor had 4 rooms, one ‘hospital’ style room for extracting the eggs and carrying out medical tests and the other 3 rooms were for surrogate mothers to live. There was also garden, swimming pool and chicken in the backyard, which made it feel a bit homey.

Part two is coming......