China's first surrogate mother website is growing despite legal and ethical concerns.
The site, www.aa69.com, which opened from a base in Suzhou in January 2004, promises to find infertile couples suitable surrogate mums who are willing to carry the couples' babies through artificial insemination.
The website now has 13 regional agents across the country to recruit candidates and handle requests from potential clients, and had attracted more than 245,000 hits by yesterday.
Applicants to become surrogate mothers, which the website calls "volunteers," are required to be aged below 32, have a minimum height of 157 cm, be in good health, and with no history of abortion, severe myopia, or addictions to alcohol or smoking.
The costs of surrogate mother services range from 40,000 yuan (US$5,000) to more than 100,000 yuan (US$12,500), depending on their educational background and appearance, according to the reference prices posted on the website.
The couples involved are also required to cover the maintenance and medical fees of the surrogate mothers during the pregnancy period.
"We keep the personal information of volunteers and the clients confidential and neither side knows the other's information throughout their lifetime," said the website's Beijing region agent surnamed Wang.
He refused to reveal how the artificial insemination process was conducted, on the grounds of commercial secret.
He added: "Anything related to the medical operation will be conducted by authorized medical institutions and we merely serve as a broker between the couples and the surrogate mothers."
Lu Jinfeng, founder and owner of the website, was not available for comment. He told local media earlier this year that the service has helped about 200 couples to have babies.
The growth of the website has been marked by controversy. The Ministry of Health issued the Administrative Measures for Human Auxiliary Reproduction Technology in 2001, forbidding unauthorized institutions to conduct any auxiliary reproduction activities.
"It is illegal for a website to provide surrogate reproduction technologies," said Du Liyuan, a lawyer with the Beijing Zhongsheng Law Firm.
"But there is not a clear stipulation against surrogate mother contracts that do not involve reproduction technology matters, although they are ethically controversial," he said.
Du warned that disputes over support, inheritance and other family issues could arise in the future because of the surrogate mother service.
The website, registered with the Ministry of Information Technology, was reportedly shut down by local police in Suzhou in January 2005, but soon resumed after police ruled the website was just a broker service and was not about reproductive technology. The website's base moved to Wuhan in Hubei Province last year.
Zhu Xihong, general manager of Shanghai Yihong Technology and Engineering Corporation, a company making impotence-related products, said surrogate mother services are hard to extinguish in China given the huge demand and a lack of information about professional groups.
"Good hospitals in China don't usually advertise themselves and that's why many childless couples turn to the unprofessional services which spend heavily on advertising," said Zhu.
"In particular, our traditional culture is extremely serious about carrying on the family lines," he said. "That's why many childless couples are desperate and willing to have a baby by any means and at any cost."
The www.aa69.com website posts warnings of other websites which have copied its business model and have been found to be cheating both potential surrogate mothers and childless couples.
(China Daily February 16, 2006)
