Want China Times, Staff Reporter 2015-04-14
China's
health authorities announced last week they would join forces with the police
and 10 other government agencies to enforce a ban on surrogate births.
Surrogacy survives as an industry in China despite being illegal. (Internet photo) |
An ad for surrogacy services on the street in China. (Internet photo) |
The
initiative, which will go until the end of 2015, aims to clamp down the birth
alternative as it "severely interferes with China's lawful infertility
treatments and the natural means by which married couples bear children,
damages public health and impacts the implementation of the national birth
policy," according to a note on the website of National Health and Family
Planning Commission.
While
surrogate birth is illegal under Chinese law, underground surrogate mothers and
various services in the name of surrogacy provided by sex workers have thrived,
reports our Chinese language sister paper Want Daily.
In China,
many married couples with fertility problems have looked for alternatives to
have a baby of their own, even if it is against the law. With business booming,
other illegal trades in the name of surrogate birth services, mainly
prostitution, have also mushroomed in the dark.
The
internet, given its anonymity, has served as a haven for service providers for
both surrogate birth and sex workers, and has become a major obstacle for
control by authorities, the report said.
Many of the
sex rings advertised on social networking media like instant messaging apps
WeChat or the Sina Weibo, claim to provide surrogate services in the form of
cohabitation. No necessary details such as the medical procedures were given;
the ads merely suggest that the services involve sexual intercourse.
Some agents
claim to provide "foreign ovum," and display photos of young,
beautiful Thai ladies said to be potential surrogate mothers and ovum donors.
It is unclear whether these agents actually mediate between foreign surrogate
mothers and sterile couples.
There are
home businesses getting in on the action too. A young woman claiming to be 19
posted a message online saying that she would be a surrogate mother for 300,000
yuan (US$4,800), and that "the odds of getting pregnant is minimum,"
a rather clear statement that she would be providing services other than giving
birth to a child.
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