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Rent a womb

2014-02-11 13:38 Shanghai Daily Web Editor: Wang Fan
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Shanghai native Tony Jiang shares a moment at home with his three children. All were born through surrogates in California.

Shanghai native Tony Jiang shares a moment at home with his three children. All were born through surrogates in California.

Though surrogacy is illegal in China, couples still seek surrogates so they can buy a first or second child, and many turn to the US for tall Caucasians who can bear twins.

At 54, Daisy Chen has built a successful career as a financial adviser, a happy marriage to a well-connected private investor and understanding life partner, and she has delivered a son. Now 25 years old, he recently returned from Australia with an MBA and started working.

It sounds ideal, but Chen feels she needs something more to make life perfect.

"I'm not a greedy person and there isn't much that I don't already have, but I always hoped for a second child, or maybe even a third, to build a perfect family," Chen tells Shanghai Daily.

"My husband and I worked day and night when we were young. We had no time, no money, no courage to have a second child, since it is banned (by the one-child policy). Now, I'm retiring and I want to get it done," she says.

Chen is exploring her options. Like thousands of Chinese couples, she turns to surrogacy, finding a woman to bear a child using her husband's sperm and her egg, although physicians have strongly suggested her using someone else's.

While the domestic supply chain, basically illegitimate and underground, has been up and running for at least eight years, the recent trend is to find a womb an ocean away — in the United States.

"Seventy percent of our clients are Chinese," Jennifer Garcia from California-based Extraordinary Conceptions tells Shanghai Daily in a Skype interview from Carlsbad near San Diego.

The company started in 2005 and business really took off in 2011. That's when many Chinese parents wanted a "dragon baby" born in 2012, the auspicious Year of the Dragon. In the last two years, the number has grown dramatically.

"Business with the "snake baby" (2013 was the Year of the Snake) was great too, and this year we expect a little growth since many people want a baby born in the Year of the Horse. The Chinese zodiac really influences our business," Garcia adds.

According to Garcia, who has been with the company for seven years, business with China's mainland expanded simply through word of mouth, without any advertising or marketing in China.

Around 70 percent of the total clients are from the Chinese mainland and already have one child. Most are between 40 and 60, though Garcia recently met a couple in their early 80s who wanted to be parents again. Due to their age, doctors did not approve the case.

Most couples want to use the wife's eggs, if possible, and if a donation is required, they want an Asian egg.

However, they prefer a tall, large Caucasian surrogate who can easily carry twins.

"Age is a big factor. Many women had their first kid in their 20s, and now they want to have a child again, but it is illegal in China," Garcia says.

There are added benefits. Children born in the US are automatically US citizens and can attend schools in the States. As citizens, they can eventually bring their Chinese family to the US to live.

The costs vary for invitro fertilization (IVF), implantation of embryos in the surrogate, insurance, legal documents and hospital delivery.

Overall, the cost in China for one baby, with no egg donation from the surrogate is 300,000 yuan (US49,471) to 750,000 yuan. The cost in the US ranges from US$90,000 to US$160,000.

Egg donation is about another 50,000 yuan.

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