Surrogate mother site grows in popularity By Jiao Xiaoyang (China Daily) Updated: 2006-02-16 06:10
China's first surrogate mother website is growing despite legal and ethical
concerns.
The site, www.aa69.com, which opened from a base in Suzhou in January 2004,
promises to find infertile couples suitable surrogate mums who are willing to
carry the couples' babies through artificial insemination. The website now has
13 regional agents across the country to recruit candidates and handle requests
from potential clients, and had attracted more than 245,000 hits by yesterday.
Applicants to become surrogate mothers, which the website calls "volunteers,"
are required to be aged below 32, have a minimum height of 157 cm, be in good
health, and with no history of abortion, severe myopia, or addictions to alcohol
or smoking.
The costs of surrogate mother services range from 40,000 yuan (US$5,000) to
more than 100,000 yuan (US$12,500), depending on their educational background
and appearance, according to the reference prices posted on the website. The
couples involved are also required to cover the maintenance and medical fees of
the surrogate mothers during the pregnancy period.
"We keep the personal information of volunteers and the clients confidential
and neither side knows the other's information throughout their lifetime," said
the website's Beijing region agent surnamed Wang.
He refused to reveal how the artificial insemination process was conducted,
on the grounds of commercial secret.
He added: "Anything related to the medical operation will be conducted by
authorized medical institutions and we merely serve as a broker between the
couples and the surrogate mothers."
Lu Jinfeng, founder and owner of the website, was not available for comment.
He told local media earlier this year that the service has helped about 200
couples to have babies.
The growth of the website has been marked by controversy. The Ministry of
Health issued the Administrative Measures for Human Auxiliary Reproduction
Technology in 2001, forbidding unauthorized institutions to conduct any
auxiliary reproduction activities.
"It is illegal for a website to provide surrogate reproduction technologies,"
said Du Liyuan, a lawyer with the Beijing Zhongsheng Law Firm.
"But there is not a clear stipulation against surrogate mother contracts that
do not involve reproduction technology matters, although they are ethically
controversial," he said.
Du warned that disputes over support, inheritance and other family issues
could arise in the future because of the surrogate mother service.
The website, registered with the Ministry of Information Technology, was
reportedly shut down by local police in Suzhou in January 2005, but soon resumed
after police ruled the website was just a broker service and was not about
reproductive technology. The website's base moved to Wuhan in Hubei Province
last year.
Zhu Xihong, general manager of Shanghai Yihong Technology and Engineering
Corporation, a company making impotence-related products, said surrogate mother
services are hard to extinguish in China given the huge demand and a lack of
information about professional groups.
"Good hospitals in China don't usually advertise themselves and that's why
many childless couples turn to the unprofessional services which spend heavily
on advertising," said Zhu.
"In particular, our traditional culture is extremely serious about carrying
on the family lines," he said. "That's why many childless couples are desperate
and willing to have a baby by any means and at any cost."
The www.aa69.com website posts warnings of other websites which have copied
its business model and have been found to be cheating both potential surrogate
mothers and childless couples.
(China Daily 02/16/2006 page3)
|