China is again experiencing widespread outrage related to surrogacy, after it was revealed that a teenager was paid by a man in his 50s to carry and give birth to twins.
According to the South China Morning Post, the girl is a member of the Yi minority and was just 16 when the embryos were implanted through in vitro fertilization (IVF). The man she served as a traditional surrogate for was only identified by his surname — Long — and he worked with Guangzhou Junlan Medical Equipment Co Ltd. He allegedly paid her 900,000 yuan (US$124,000) to conceive and carry the babies.
Long had the girl pose as his wife so he could obtain birth certificates and childhood registration for the boys. And while this was described as a surrogacy arrangement, the young girl is the biological mother of the boys, as she provided her own eggs. There are now questions being raised as to the legality of this arrangement.
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“Organising minors to participate in surrogacy constitutes harm to minors and may involve trafficking of women and children or intentional injury,” Wu Zhenhua, a lawyer from Beijing Yedi Law Firm, told Beijing Radio and Television Station. “The fabrication of documents and household registrations may violate laws against forging, altering, or trading official government documents. As for the male client, he may be considered an accomplice to crimes such as aiding illegal business operations or intentional injury.”
Surrogacy is illegal in China, yet surrogacy rings still exist and flourish, particularly as birth rates plummet, and the gender imbalance continues to be severe. Yet publicly, the practice is frowned upon. “Women are not vessels. Medical institutions that facilitate surrogacy must face criminal charges. A fine of just a few thousand yuan is far from enough,” one person said in response to the controversy.
The practice of surrogate motherhood is also controversial because it is harmful to the children created through it. Studies have found that removing a child from his or her birth mother, whether biologically related or not, can cause trauma. During pregnancy, the baby bonds with his or her mother, hearing her voice, her heartbeat, and her movements, and is even affected by her emotions. While adoption seeks to heal a wound of separation when a mother feels unable to raise her child, surrogacy creates a child with the intention of creating a wound of separation.
In this case, these twin boys have intentionally been deprived of their biological mother as well as their heritage and ancestry.
