In vitro 'octuplets' become cause celebre

BEIJING - A Guangzhou woman who has had "octuplets" with the help of surrogate mothers has aroused enormous attention and controversy.

The woman, who lives in Guangzhou, South China's Guangdong province, had eight of her eggs fertilized through an in vitro procedure last year.

Overjoyed, she and her husband decided to keep all of the viable fetuses. They hired two surrogate mothers, one to carry two and the other three of the test-tube babies. The woman herself carried three fetuses.