Woman sheds light on China’s underground surrogacy business
By Bryan Ke
Zhang Jing, a 22-year-old Chinese woman, recently shared how she was lured into the illegal surrogacy business in China with the promise of a large sum of money for a successful delivery. Zhang shared her story in an interview with Chinese state outlet
- What happened: In need of quick money, Zhang left her job at a coffee shop to contact an agency and participate in what she initially thought was a drug trial, only to learn later that she would be donating her eggs. Zhang was taken to a hospital where her eggs were extracted and she later agreed to rent out her uterus, earning her a total of 30,000 yuan ($4,140). If she “successfully” delivered the baby, she will receive 250,000 yuan ($34,500), which she planned to use to learn English and search for a job abroad. Under the agreement, she was housed in a three-bedroom, two-living-room dormitory with other surrogate mothers and was only informed that her clients were a gay couple. Zhang suffered complications five months into her pregnancy, forcing her to immediately terminate the fetus. She was told that she would not be compensated, with the agency allegedly claiming, “We also lost a lot of money.”
- How people reacted: Surrogacy is officially banned in China, though the country lacks specific rules and criminal penalties governing the practice. Weibo users weighed in on Zhang’s story, with one writing, “This is not a battle of genders; it is a battle for human dignity. It is about upholding the principle that, as human beings, we should not reduce ourselves to mere commodities.” Another user compared surrogacy to prostitution, noting, “When it’s illegal, people claim it’s all about coercion. But if it becomes legal, practitioners will flood in like fish swimming across a river.”
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