The Paper Journalist, Qin Shan, intern Lu Yanfan, Ningjing Zhang Yifan

  "One kidney shift, two congenital heart diseases, and three premature births." Chen Hao broke his fingers and enumerated the "failed products" among more than 100 children born by his surrogacy company last year.

Before that, they had also encountered a child with anal atresia and one missing kidney.

  The birth of these children means "transaction failure".

The client will hardly accept the child, and will not pay the balance, and the child will be arranged by the surrogacy agency.

  Surrogacy is not allowed in the country. Demands and benefits have contributed to a long-standing underground industry.

The surrogacy industry chain consists of demanders, surrogacy companies, egg donors, surrogate mothers, doctors who perform surrogacy operations, and hospitals that issue birth certificates. They either pursue interests, have real needs, or serve selfish purposes.

The child is a "commodity" that is manufactured. You can choose gender, single birth or multiple births. If there are defects, they may be abandoned.

  These underground commercial surrogacy behaviors challenge the traditional birth order and secular ethics.

  At the end of August 2020, The Paper (www.thepaper.cn) visited a number of commercial surrogacy companies in Guangzhou, Shenzhen and other places and found that due to the impact of the epidemic, seeking surrogacy abroad was blocked, and orders from domestic surrogacy agencies increased significantly, and egg donors (in the industry) (Called "egg sister") compensation fees, surrogate mother commissions and other expenses have also risen.

  Even after some surrogacy agencies were investigated, they changed places to "return to their old business."

  Behind the promises of these intermediaries to "contract success", there are chaos and ethical and legal risks such as "exchange of eggs", non-biological, concealment of fetal diseases, and survival defects.

The huge benefits behind "including success and gender"

  On the morning of August 25, Room 911, Building D, Phase II, Galaxy WORLD, Longhua District, Shenzhen, Guangdong.

  Xue Wei swiped the screen of his phone and looked at various WeChat work groups and people who privately wrote to him.

There are too many messages, and the small red circle showing unread messages fills the screen from top to bottom.

  The basic message to him is to consult the client of surrogacy.

There are Xue Wei, logistics staff, surrogate mothers, etc. in the "work group". If all goes well, a surrogate baby will be born behind each "work group".

  After the surrogacy company signs an agreement with the customer, it will set up a work group. The customer, the surrogacy company logistics staff, doctors, etc. will be responsible for point-to-point problem solving.

  Having been involved in the surrogacy market for 12 years, Xue Wei established the “International Fertility Inheritance Center for Children and Heirs” claiming to connect overseas reproductive hospitals for domestic clients with surrogacy needs and provide surrogacy services. Since its establishment in 2008, it has served more than 8,000 families in total and has been successful More than 10,000 healthy babies were born.

"Inheritance of Heirs" established the confinement club, which houses more than ten surrogate babies.

  After discussing in detail, Xue Wei admitted that most of the intermediary companies that claim to be overseas surrogacy are "selling dog meat", and the company's business scope is also "virtual", almost all of them carry out surrogacy in China.

Because of the epidemic this year, those who originally had overseas business have moved to the domestic market.

  "Gender can be included, and the package can be successful." Xue Wei provided an agreement with two packages of 580,000 yuan and 880,000 yuan, both of which promised that the customer can hold a healthy baby boy within 2 years.

The former is 300,000 yuan cheaper, and if the surrogacy is not successful, it means that the surrogacy is unsuccessful at one time, and the restart process requires additional payment.

  Surrogacy is born due to the development and application of assisted reproductive technology, and in many cases it is directly compared to "borrowing children through the belly".

Surrogacy flowchart provided by one of the surrogacy companies

  According to industry insiders, surrogacy can be subdivided into three types: first, sperm and eggs are provided by the demander, and embryo transfer after in vitro fertilization is carried out by borrowing the uterus of the surrogate mother; second, only the sperm comes from the demander and the eggs are provided by the egg donor , Conceived by the surrogate mother; third, only the eggs are provided by the demander, and after heterogeneous artificial insemination with third-party sperm, the surrogate mother is conceived.

  The common one is the second one. The customer provides healthy sperm, and the surrogacy company finds an egg source for it, cultivates the embryo and implants it into the selected surrogate mother, so as to achieve the purpose of "borrowing a baby through the abdomen".

  Domestic surrogacy basically adopts the "third-generation test-tube baby", which refers to the technology of genetic analysis of gametes or embryos based on in vitro fertilization technology to detect whether they have genetic defects and select embryos with no abnormalities to be implanted in the uterus.

Its technical "gene screening, gender selection" is used by surrogacy companies as a gimmick, and customers can choose the baby's gender, single or twin.

  "The price is high." In Block B of Polyclovi·Zhongjing Building, Huasui Road, Tianhe District, Guangzhou, Cai Deliang, general manager of the Guangzhou branch of the surrogacy company "Youyixing", listened to the package offer of "Children's Inheritance" Bluntly.

  The slogan of "Excellent Pregnancy" is "Love starts from the birth of life", and he claims to have done more than 200 surrogates in China in one year.

  The "Consultation Entrusted Service Agreement" he provided to reporters shows that if you choose the "Successful Package" package, the cost is 708,000 yuan, which guarantees that you can hold a baby within three years.

"Youth Pregnancy" is responsible for contacting third-party egg donor agencies and providing third-party egg donor candidates who meet the customer's requirements. After finding a surrogate mother with suitable physiological conditions, embryo transfer will be carried out.

  Cai Deliang, general manager of the Guangzhou branch of the surrogacy company "Pregnancy Travel", called himself a representative of the National People's Congress. He took a group photo at the office of the 16th National People's Congress in Guangfeng District, Shangrao City, Jiangxi Province.

  The 708,000 yuan package is paid in installments at different stages, and 78,000 yuan is paid on the day the agreement is signed to start the process.

Subsequently, the remaining package fees will be paid in installments during the stages of selecting the egg girl, opening the ovulation induction cycle, opening the surrogate mother selection link, HCG pregnancy test success, pregnancy test confirmation fetal heart rate, surrogate mother's pregnancy for 4 months, and newborn birth day.

  However, if the surrogate mother is pregnant with twins or even multiple births, an additional 100,000 yuan will be required for the surrogate mother’s compensation, medical care and other expenses; if the child is born prematurely, the childcare costs will also need to be borne by the customer; if a caesarean section is performed, the customer will need to pay extra 30,000 yuan is used to pay for surgery, treatment costs, and compensation for surrogate mothers.

  The reporter's investigation found that the packages provided by many companies engaged in the surrogacy intermediary business basically claimed to be "successful and gender-inclusive", and there are also "non-successful" packages to choose from. The price of several packages ranges from more than 500,000 yuan to one million. Early yuan varies.

  "Success not included" packages need to pay about 100,000 to 200,000 yuan for each test tube cycle restart. Customers with "successful packages" can promote ovulation, egg retrieval, sperm retrieval, and transplantation as many times as possible until the surrogate mother becomes pregnant successfully. And gave birth to a baby.

  The agreement provided by "Jingyinbaby" contains a variety of basic packages, which are mainly divided into "successful package and non-successful package".

  After the outbreak of the new crown pneumonia, it has also affected the underground surrogacy industry.

  Many surrogacy companies said that after the outbreak of the epidemic, some potential customers and surrogacy companies who originally expected to do surrogacy overseas have turned to China, and business orders have increased significantly from April.

Taking "child inheritance" as an example, the staff said that from April to the present, there were more than 400 orders in four months, accounting for nearly 70% of the whole year of last year, and there are still a large number of orders of intent being discussed every month.

  At the same time, competition in the industry is also intensifying. Examples of looting customers at large price cuts are everywhere, and people in the industry have become accustomed to it.

In order to give customers a better service impression, it has become a common phenomenon to visit the company by "special car".

  Following this, "the tide has risen and the boat has risen" there are also compensation for egg donation and commissions paid to surrogate mothers.

According to an industry insider, the total commission price of surrogate mothers has increased by 10,000 to 20,000 yuan this year. With the further expansion of the surrogacy market demand, many surrogacy companies have changed their mindset of relying solely on specialized intermediaries to "acquire customers". Special personnel recruit surrogate mothers to form their own "resource pool".

  Behind it is driven by high profits.

  Xue Wei revealed that his company's turnover exceeded 100 million yuan last year, but it is not convenient to disclose its profits.

Chen Hao admitted frankly that for an order of 700,000 to 800,000 yuan, they can make a profit of two to three million yuan, sometimes even higher than this.

Same-sex group surrogacy market

  "My little brother can play Douyin already. It seems that he has already made several Douyin. The whole process is done by himself." In the dad group, the gay man "Mr. Li" shared the "new skills" of his baby.

  The child is not related to him, and was born by the other half "Mr. Ji" who found an intermediary company specializing in surrogacy.

  "Mr. Ji" said that the two have always wanted to have a child, grow up with them, and let their parents enjoy the old life of sweethearts and grandchildren.

As homosexuals, they feel that they “owe a debt to their parents”.

  Can't give birth, but want children.

In addition to the needs arising from infertility or loss of independence, some homosexuals also realize their desire to hold children through surrogacy. Under the stimulation of market demand, intermediary companies specializing in surrogacy for gay groups have emerged.

  At the end of April this year, "Rainbow Baby", a company that specializes in surrogacy for gays and lesbians in Guangzhou, was reported, and the local health committee subsequently intervened in the investigation.

An assistant of "Rainbow Baby" surrogacy company said that the company's business qualifications are all "selling dog meat".

  On the morning of August 27, four months after the incident, in Room 2802, Block B, Longde Building, Tianhe District, Guangzhou City, Chen Hao, who claimed to be the company's chief executive, introduced the company's surrogacy process to reporters.

The assistant "Lao Er" explained that the office address that was previously investigated and punished for reporting is no longer in use, he was fined 300,000 yuan, and changed his place to resume his old business. "You can't ban this thing."

  Chen Hao introduced that since the establishment of "Rainbow Baby" in 2015, they have provided more than 400 clients with "borrowing children".

Around 90% of the clients are gay and 3% to 5% are lesbian.

  The total price of the package is 750,000 yuan, a deposit of 50,000 yuan is delivered, and the final payment of 200,000 yuan is paid when the baby’s health is handed over.

"If the surrogate mother has a cesarean section or twins, additional compensation is required." Chen Hao said.

  "Calculating from the day the embryo is transferred to the surrogate mother, a healthy baby can be delivered within two years." The assistant "Lao Er" wrote in the customer agreement presented to reporters.

  Letting gay "daddy" with children discuss each other and answer questions in the WeChat group is the best advertisement for Chen Hao.

"Rainbow Baby" operates several WeChat groups of this kind in China, and almost all of its customers come from customer introductions.

  In the two WeChat group chats "Shanghai Dad Group" and "In-laws are coming" that "Old Two" invited reporters to join, the group members are all gay men who have successfully surrogated in "Rainbow Baby".

The surrogacy group of gay men joined by the reporter.

The members of the group are all "dad" surrogates.

  "My family has started to learn to walk, and sometimes it really hurts to fall." "Let the children climb more and walk by standing on the fence." They shared their children's daily life and exchanged the problems that children will encounter at each stage.

  Among the gay clients of "Rainbow Baby", several children are currently undergoing surrogacy. On the morning of August 29, two of the clients’ children were transferred from the hospital to be handed over.

  Both gay men, Ma Huan from Weifang, Shandong Province, as the only child in the family, took into account the inheritance of the family, and had his own son through surrogacy two years ago.

  In 2017, Ma Huan saw someone cheated on surrogacy in Ukraine on the Internet, which strengthened his determination to do surrogacy in China.

He spent nearly 700,000 yuan for the entire surrogacy process, including 70,000 yuan for buying eggs, 600,000 yuan for signing a contract with the surrogacy agency, and 10,000 to 20,000 yuan for miscellaneous physical examinations.

  In addition to the gay community that has implemented surrogacy, there are also some "potential customers" who are watching.

  Li Yao, a 24-year-old lesbian, and her current partner often discuss the topic of having children in the future after they met, "Maybe because I studied design, I think children are like my own work."

  In order to better understand surrogacy, Li Yao often browses information about surrogacy and the successful experience of surrogacy with friends who are also "LGBT" (including lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender) groups.

Considering that domestic surrogacy is not legal, she plans to go abroad for surrogacy, buy sperm and combine with her own egg to form a fertilized egg, and finally find a surrogate mother to help give birth to a child.

  "Orders are increasing year by year." Chen Hao revealed that the reason why the company specializes in surrogacy for same-sex groups is that it has taken a fancy to the potential market demand.

  According to China Business News, although academic circles and research institutions did not agree on the proportion of homosexuals in the total population, about 5% may be the lower limit.

According to this calculation, there are 70 million homosexuals in China, half of whom are women.

  The "2015 Blued Big Data White Paper" published by "Blued," China's largest "gay" social software and whose main user is gay men, shows that 40% of gay men consider going overseas to receive surrogacy services in the future.

Register your child: "fake marriage" and manage hospital relations

  How to register a child born through surrogacy?

During the unannounced interview by The Paper, several surrogacy companies made it clear that they could cooperate with hospitals to "pass through the blind" to give birth to children and assist in the household registration according to customer needs.

  According to the introduction of several surrogacy companies, there are usually several main solutions to the problem of surrogate babies going home.

  One is that before the surrogate mother is about to give birth, the surrogacy company arranges a fake marriage between the client and another woman.

The surrogate mother is arranged to go to a private or public hospital to give birth, but the registration and file information is the woman who has falsely married the client.

After the relationship is managed, the hospital does not check whether the registration information is consistent with the childbirth woman, and finally issues a "Birth Medical Certificate" with the information of the woman who is falsely married to the client.

After entering the account, the client divorced the woman again.

  Several surrogacy companies said that customers can find someone to get married by themselves, and the company can help find it, but they need to pay about 10,000 yuan in compensation.

"The woman cannot be too old, and the younger partner is unwilling to do it." Xue Wei said.

  More directly, use a fake ID to register maternal information and obtain a "Birth Medical Certificate."

  Several judgment documents show that surrogate mothers use fake ID cards after giving birth to register maternal information with other people's information and change the birth mother's name on the "Birth Medical Certificate" to register the child's household registration under the name of the demanding party.

In one criminal sentence, three doctors knew that the information of the newborn's mother was false, they still issued a false "Birth Medical Certificate" and accepted bribes.

  In addition, the surrogacy company will "take advantage of the loopholes" according to the special circumstances of the baby's household registration.

  According to the person in charge of several surrogacy companies, as a client of the baby's father, he will do a judicial paternity test with the child, and then go to the place of household registration to falsely claim that "the mother is not married, but the mother of the child ran away."

This situation is popular among gay clients.

  In order to facilitate the household registration of surrogate babies, some surrogacy agencies will establish a good relationship with the hospital and cooperate specifically.

  Xue Wei said that the operation of public hospitals is risky, and most surrogacy companies choose to cooperate with private hospitals.

For example, their company mainly cooperates with "Shenzhen Renhe Hospital and Shenzhen Tongren Obstetrics and Gynecology Hospital" in Shenzhen. The number of deliveries in the former accounts for 70 to 80% of the company's Shenzhen orders; in Guangzhou, it cooperates with "Guangzhou Women's Hospital" in Dongguan. Cooperation with "Dongguan Maria Maternity Hospital, Dongguan Victoria Women and Children Hospital".

  "Inheritance of Children" claims to have in-depth cooperation with Shenzhen Renhe Hospital, where 70-80% of Shenzhen's surrogate mothers "pass through the customs" to give birth.

  In order to verify the "reliable relationship", in the obstetric ward of the "Shenzhen Renhe Hospital", Xue Wei led reporters to see a surrogate mother named Gong who was admitted to the hospital on August 18 and gave birth here.

A 6-jin baby boy lying beside him was the child of a client in Shenzhen.

  When the reporter asked a doctor on duty in the obstetrics department whether the file information was also for Ms. Gong, the other party smiled and did not speak.

  In the "Pregnancy Trip", Cai Deliang provided reporters with multiple copies of the surrogate mother’s examination and delivery documents in the "Zhuhai Maternity and Child Health Hospital", saying that the company mostly completed the last step of delivery at the hospital. Close one eye with one eye", the procedure for the baby's home visit is the same as the previous method.

"The cooperation agreement must be signed privately, so you can't watch it."

The surrogate mother provided by "Youth Pregnancy" is in the cooperative hospital "Zhuhai Maternal and Child Health Hospital" ultrasound examination sheet.

  Chen Hao introduced that "Rainbow Baby" mainly cooperates with three public hospitals in Guangzhou, namely, Guangzhou Women's Hospital, Guangzhou Marais Obstetrics and Gynecology Hospital, and the Third Affiliated Hospital of Guangzhou Medical University.

  He explained that private hospitals can "fuck fish in troubled waters" and give birth to children, but the purpose is to make money. As long as there are some difficult cases, they dare not accept them.

In emergencies such as premature delivery, massive bleeding, and high blood pressure, public hospitals are more trustworthy in medical practice. If there is a relationship, the hospital will give priority to surgery.

  After the baby is born in a public hospital, the hospital dare not "touch the red line" and apply for the "Birth Medical Certificate" in violation of regulations. At this time, it is necessary to "set" a birth medical certificate.

  He gave an example: For some children born in an extramarital affair, both parents are afraid to apply for a "Medical Birth Certificate" for the baby.

At this time, a special intermediary took the certificate and sold it to the surrogacy company. The company used the female information provided by the customer to process the "Birth Medical Certificate" to fill the gap.

  Different from the above three surrogacy companies, the surrogacy company "Jingyinbao" bluntly stated that their biggest advantage is that they can give birth in a public hospital and apply for a "Birth Medical Certificate."

  "Essence Baby" showed multiple birth medical certificates for babies after illegal delivery.

The registered mothers of babies are from Henan, Hunan and other places.

  The company’s “Zhuang Zhuang” revealed that “Zong Yu,” the co-founder of “Jingyin Baby”, came out of the health system and has the resources to cooperate with public hospitals, such as “Lingnan Hospital of the Third Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-Sen University and No. 2 Middle School of Guangdong Province. Huangpu Hospital, Guangzhou Women and Children's Medical Center Zengcheng District".

"Jingyin Baby" claims to be an in-depth cooperation with the Lingnan Hospital of the Third Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University.

  He showed reporters the diagnosis and treatment data of the surrogate mother in the three aforementioned hospitals for examinations and inpatient delivery, saying that "it will not be followed up after a long time."

Underground surrogacy chaos

  In the reporter's investigation, the heads of several surrogacy companies did not want to mention the "risks" that may arise during the surrogacy process, only saying that "there is no absolute safety."

  According to an industry insider, the surrogacy industry itself is an "underground industry", and it is difficult for surrogacy companies to be 100% authentic and transparent.

Among them, the most common occurrence is "fraud" against customers, mainly in two aspects: "exchange of eggs" and "concealment of infant illness."

  "In the process of finding a suitable egg girl, 60% of the companies will do the job of replacing the egg girl." Chen Hao said, after the customer interviews the egg donor, the surrogacy company will replace the high-priced one with the low-priced one until the child is already It is impossible for the client to not want to be pregnant or even give birth, "it is his son after all, but the mother is different."

  In the “egg exchange”, in order to reassure customers, the surrogacy company will shoot videos of injections and egg retrieval to the egg donor that the customer has already matched in advance, and notify the customer to send the video to him when he wants to retrieve the egg, but it actually enters the “experiment” "Room" may be other girls.

  This "stealing of the day and changing the day" operation is called "interviewing on behalf of". Just like an alternative exam, the surrogacy company pays the interview girl an "interview fee" ranging from 2,000 to 20,000 yuan.

  "You can cut a piece of egg girl's hair in advance, and after the baby has formed a little, take blood to test whether it is the same egg source." "Zhuang Zhuang" provides a verification method to prevent egg exchange.

  In addition, the previous surrogacy market still had laboratory chaotic management, which led to the absurd phenomenon that babies born to surrogacy were not biological.

In order to gain trust, some surrogacy companies often state in their agreements that customers have the right to determine whether the fetus is born in pregnancy through the peripheral blood of the surrogate mother or the amniotic fluid and villi.

  "Hiding a baby's illness" is also a chaos in the surrogacy market.

  Some surrogacy company intermediaries said that some surrogacy companies found health problems during the process of baby pregnancy. In order to avoid losses, they would conceal the condition of the disease from the customer or provide a complete health report.

A few weeks or months after the customer gets the child, some diseases will appear, but in this era, the pregnancy company will not accept it.

  After a dispute occurs, the contract or agreement signed between the surrogacy company and the customer will be deemed invalid due to violation of current legislation and public order and good customs, and the customer can only suffer "dumb losses."

  The reporter's inquiry found that in a contract dispute case heard by the People's Court of Zixing City, Hunan in May this year, a couple paid more than 740,000 yuan to hold a baby in a surrogacy company called "Yisheng International" and found that the child had weak hearing. , So he took the other party to court and demanded a refund of the fees paid.

  The person in charge of the surrogacy company argued that the child was healthy when he was taken away, otherwise he would not be taken away, and issued a "collar strip."

  After the trial, the court held that the "Surrogacy Agreement" signed by both parties was obviously for the purpose of profit-making and used the child as the object of commodity transactions. Therefore, the surrogacy contract violated public order, good customs and social morality, and should be deemed invalid according to law, and finally rejected the aforementioned couple Petition.

  On the other hand, even after genetic screening, the surrogacy company does not subjectively conceal the baby’s illness, the surrogate may still give birth to "unhealthy babies."

  The agreement issued by "Inheritance of Heirs" mentioned that "the screening and diagnosis of embryonic genetic diseases cannot 100% ensure that the newborn fetus conceived will maintain normal health."

  Chen Hao revealed that last year, his company did almost 100 surrogacy. One of the children born with a kidney shift, two congenital heart diseases, and three premature births.

Before that, they had also encountered a child with anal atresia and one missing kidney.

  The client did not get his wish to report on the healthy child, and how to arrange the child after the transaction fails, Chen Haosan was silent and reluctant to say more.

  Having done so many cases, a case of a child with cerebral palsy made Chen Hao's memory deep.

  The child born by a client surrogate weighed 7 kilograms. After the birth, the child would not cry. Later, it was discovered that the hospital had a medical accident during the delivery: the child was entangled in the umbilical cord at birth, knotted, and the surrogate mother did not Willing to choose cesarean section.

The nurse kept pulling, and the child suffered from hypoxia in his brain, which caused cerebral palsy.

  The guest was unwilling to have children at first, "Rainbow Baby" returned all the money to him, but the other party did not accept it at first, and later "cried and took the child away."

  There are also customers who temporarily regret not wanting children.

  A gay client in Xiamen paid the money, but when the child was about to be born, the client had broken up with his "other half" and regretted not wanting any more children and disappeared.

No way, Chen Hao and they eventually gave the child to others.

  "If you regret it, say it earlier, we will all get the baby in the stomach sooner." Chen Hao said.

  Zhu Ying, a senior reporter from The Paper, also contributed to this article

  (In order to protect the privacy of the parties, Ma Huan and Li Yao are aliases in the text)