Huge market
Despite the risks and expense, surrogacy still has a huge market in China given the number of infertile parents, Song says.
Surrogacy challenges the cultural beliefs and ideals regarding the mother-infant relationship and China's laws and attitudes have a long way to catch up, Song says.
China has no law pertaining to the surrogacy. In 2001, the Health Ministry issued the Administrative Measures for Human Auxiliary Reproduction Technology, banning all forms of trade in fertilized eggs and embryos and prohibiting medical institutions and medical staff from performing any form of surrogacy procedures.
It also stipulates that the use of reproduction techniques must conform with China's family planning policy, ethical standards and laws.
The ban forced intermediary agents to arrange surrogacy procedures secretly in private and public hospitals where they had good personal connections with the doctors
Surrogate Wang carried a baby boy, for which she received 100,000 yuan, about 20 times the average disposable income of a rural Chinese resident last year, which stood at 5,153 yuan.
It came in instalments: 10,000 yuan in the first month of pregnancy, followed by 20,000-yuan tranches at the fifth, seventh and eighth months. The biological parents paid the rest on delivery of the baby.
Miscarriage payments are calculated according. For example, if the surrogate loses the child after a month, the payment is 10,000 yuan plus a 2,000 yuan or 3,000 yuan healthcare fee.
Wang is still hoping to complete her own family, but she will keep her surrogate past a secret from any future husband.
She says she was well cared for during her pregnancy. The agency rented a two-bedroom apartment in downtown Beijing for her and another surrogate; and a housekeeper cooked and cleaned for them. She also had regular medical examinations in hospital.
Occasionally clients request surrogates live with them so they can take good care of the "mother-to-be?themselves, Wang says.
While Wang gave the unborn child the best possible physical care, she refused to become emotionally attached to it so she could avoid a sense of loss after giving the child to the biological parents.
"It's nonsense to say we surrogates have no feelings towards the baby. It's just not practical," she says. "To keep in touch would do no good to both families. What would we tell the child after he grows up? That I am his mother?
(Source: Shanghai Daily)
