Rent a womb(4)

American surrogates

Most Chinese clients seek surrogates because of their age, according to Jiang and Garcia from Extraordinary Conceptions in California.

One woman wanted a surrogate simply because she didn't want to lose her figure, Garcia says.

Some US agencies promote their service as a cheaper and better way to ensure future immigration to America, since the US-born baby is a US citizen. The immediate family can obtain US resident visas after the child grows up and chooses American passport. Their target clients are wealthy Chinese.

"This section of our business has been on the rise since last year," says Jerry Liang, marketing specialist at a Beijing-based immigration consulting firm. "It's great. You get a passport, and you don't even have to deliver the baby by yourself. We take care of everything."

Shanghai-based Jiang disagrees with "buying a baby" for immigration purposes.

"I have rejected around 20 percent of prospective clients because my bottom line, and that of our IVF physicians, is that each couple must have a genuine problem with conception or social issues," he says. "They can't just buy a baby because they have money."

Though Jiang's consultancy is not illegal, he has felt the effects of the crackdown on illegal surrogate agencies within China. He used to promote his agency on major online forums but his surrogacy-related posts are now deleted within hours.

Even so, business is good. Jiang has acquired an office and is hiring more staff.

"I bought the office mainly as a meeting place, because most of my clients, especially older couples, are highly sensitive about privacy. They don't want anyone to know they have inquired about surrogates," Jiang says.

His own wife asked for a 12-month leave from her company so that nobody would find out that she never got pregnant.

Daisy Chen, the successful financial adviser with a near-perfect life, worries about the reaction to her surrogate-seeking from relatives and friends. She has consulted several agencies and clinics, mostly based in California. Confidentiality is her top concern.

"I have thought about borrowing a womb for quite a few years, but my husband was always so worried about what people would think of us," Chen says. "He called me nuts when I first mentioned the idea five or six years ago.

"Chinese women are well advanced into the new age while Chinese men are still stuck in Stone Age," she shrugs. "He was ignorant about surrogacy and worried people would call him an aged womanizer with abnormal fantasies."