Great expectations

His company also doesn't contract with couples in which only one spouse has agreed to the idea of surrogacy. Additionally, sex between surrogates and clients is strictly prohibited. Lu explains that the intent of all these principles is to prevent possible family disputes.

"About 800 couples have had babies with our help, and so far no serious disputes have happened between clients and surrogates," he says. "We want to make sure that the clients show honesty and respect to their surrogates. We decline anyone who simply thinks a surrogate mother is a reproductive machine and might treat them badly."

Hiring a surrogate requires a fat purse. The budget amounts to at least 250,000 yuan - it includes a 9,000-yuan payment for the agency, an allowance for the surrogates and medical charges, and plus a possible further 5,000 yuan if the operation is successful. The cost exceeds 300,000 yuan if an egg donation is also needed.

Potential clients first review surrogates' basic information and photos and decide whether they would like to schedule a face-to-face interview. The client, the surrogate and the agency will then sign a three-way contract. The agency arranges apartment accommodations for surrogate mothers until they give birth. The women will undergo regular physical check-ups at the agency's cooperative hospitals. If for any reason the pregnancy fails, the agency will provide the option of allowing a client to work with a second surrogate mother.

Dan Dan's experience is illustrative of the expanding yet irregular business of surrogate motherhood. Clients and their partners must navigate myriad cultural sensitivities and legal uncertainties.

"It is an inevitable phase of any new business. Still, I see great opportunities in the surrogacy service," says Lin Rongyao, who runs an online surrogacy institute in Beijing.

Many clients, aged between 35 and 45, have exhausted other options and believe surrogacy is their last hope for having children, he says. Lin notes that in most cases, the females in a couple are biologically infertile.

Lin says that his company facilitates about 10 surrogacy agreements per month. They limit the number of clients in order to ensure a quality service and also because the number of surrogate mothers is limited.

Some surrogacy agencies will entrust cooperative companies to look for surrogate candidates in the countryside. Lu says that a preferable surrogate mother is between 22 and 32, single and healthy.

"A surrogate should also have a mild character and not get her clients into trouble," Lin says.

Many surrogates are rural migrant women who provide the service as a way to earn money. Lu says that a percentage of his contracted surrogates also do it out of the satisfaction of helping others.

As for Dan Dan, she says: "I will never tell my son of my surrogacy, for I don't think he and people around him would accept it."

Yet she plans to draw upon her experience to help break down stereotypes. "I plan to write a book about surrogacy," she says. "I will portray the real life of surrogate mothers, and the misery of those childless couples. I hope the public can show more sympathy towards this group of people."

(China Daily 07/17/2008 page18)