Photo: Sina Weibo

Local health authorities in East China’s Xiamen and Hangzhou vowed to investigate an illegal surrogacy agency on Monday after receiving a media report. The agency, which claimed it has operated for 18 years and possesses several hundred surrogacy mothers across the country, is suspected of providing illegal services, including customized selection of the fetus' gender and quantity, in vitro fertilization with donor sperm or eggs, surrogacy, and overseas surrogacy.

According to an undercover investigation report by thepaper.cn on Monday, the agency named Romdoul Medical Clinic has multiple clinics across the country to promote their one-stop service with illegal assisted reproductive technology (ART) including customized service of fetal gender and quantity and in-vitro fertilization, with high fees.

A salesperson from the clinic said during the undercover investigation report that more than 300 children are born at the agency every year, with their birth certificates provided as well. 

Apart from its clinics across China, the agency also has a clinic in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. 

The prices of the surrogacy services range from 550,000 yuan ($77,128) to almost 1 million yuan based on different packages service. According to a salesperson, the agency has hundreds of surrogate mothers in multiple cities across the country. In order to avoid risks, these surrogate mothers do not live together. 

The salespersons also claimed that the doctors who conduct surgeries for the clients and the surrogate mothers are doctors from public hospitals with professional qualification and practitioners’ licenses. Even if their illegal activities are exposed, the penalty on them will just be the revoke of their licenses. And the service to the clients won’t be interrupted since they have many doctors. 

The salesperson claimed that the owner of the business is a man surnamed Liu. However, thepaper.cn found the legal representative behind the agency which is registered in Hong Kong Special Administrative Region is surnamed Li. 

The reporter visited the agency’s two well-facilitated clinics in Hangzhou, East China’s Zhejiang Province, and Xiamen, East China’s Fujian Province. However, the 2,600-square-meter clinic in Phnom Penh claimed by the salespersons turned out to be a four-story building. 

The Paper reported its findings to the health commissions in the two cities via hotline on Monday afternoon. The health officials have vowed to carry out investigations as soon as possible and release the investigation result to the public.

Surrogacy refers to the act by a fertile woman who becomes pregnant and gives birth to a child on behalf of another individual using modern medical techniques. 

Surrogacy is not allowed in China according to the “Regulations on Human Assisted Reproductive Technology Management” (2001) and the “Norms of Human Assisted Reproductive Technology” (2004) which explicitly stipulate that medical institutions and professionals are prohibited from providing surrogacy-related services. 

In 2023, 14 departments including the National Health Commission jointly issued a work plan on rigorously cracking down on illegal application of ART and carried out the campaign between June and December to strictly combat various illegal and criminal activities related to illegal surrogacy, effectively safeguarding the physical health and life safety of the public. 

Global Times