Surrogate pregnancy

China Hush brings a translation of a story from NDDaily: Surrogate Pregnancy in China, Be Aware of Escort Girls

The article looks into the quasi-legal field of surrogate pregnancy. Quasi-legal because the business is not legal, but surrogate pregnancies are.

Contracts between the surrogate mothers and the customers are signed but are but there are no guaranteed legal protection because the business is not legalized.

It also touches on what seems to be an interst from escort girls to get into the business of surrogate pregnancy.

In terms of costs, here are some examples:

[...]She demanded 160,000 yuan of commission, monthly salary of 3,500 yuan before pregnancy plus her rent.[...]

160,000 yuan = 23,424.00 USD
3,500 yuan = 512.400 USD

[...] Red said, in the first 3 month of the pregnancy monthly salary is 2000 yuan, plus the nourishment expenses. After she gets successfully pregnant she will receive a 30,000 yuan of deposit. Right before the baby is born she will receive the full amount. Red estimated total commission of over 100,000 yuan, because she was pregnant with twins. [...]

2,000 yuan = 292.834 USD
30,000 yuan = 4,392.51 USD
100,000 yuan = 14,641.71 USD

[...]Although people outside of the circle of surrogate pregnancy do not recognize it as a business, but people in the circle know it has already been industrialized. Milan said surrogate pregnancy is mainly achieved in 2 ways, test tube baby and artificial insemination. Use test tube baby as an example, total cost is about 190,000 yuan. In this 190,000 yuan includes the most, commission of the surrogate mother 100,000 yuan, agency finding fee 14,000 yuan, 30,000 – 50,000 goes to the hospital, middle man between the agency and the hospital takes another 30,000 – 50,000 yuan. Other than these, surrogate mother’s salary and her shots cost another 10,000 and so. Also the total cost depends on the overall quality of the surrogate mother. As to which hospital is actually practicing these cases, Milan refused to reveal. Reporter learned that, doctors who take the case usually claim to just helping a friend or practice their skills for free. This way they sound legitimate when operating, but in fact they all have received money under the table.[...]

10,000 yuan = 1,464.03 USD
14,000 yuan = 2,049.84 USD
30,000 yuan = 4,392.51 USD
50,000 yuan = 7,320.86 USD
100,000 yuan = 14,641.71 USD
190,000 yuan = 27,819.26 USD

Also there is a problem with the Chinese family planning laws, specifically the one-child policy. Dr. Peng Bo (彭勃) of Shenzhen University School of Law

“thinks surrogacy essentially is pregnant woman giving up her reproductive rights, which involves basic human rights.”