Chinese social media reels over young woman's illegal surrogacy case
BEIJING/HONG KONG, Nov 14 (Reuters) -A 22-year-old Chinese woman's account of how she was lured into the country's illegal surrogacy industry before suffering a miscarriage went viral on Chinese social media this week and raised heated debates over women's rights and social inequality.
Surrogacy is banned in China, and authorities have vowed to severely crack down on illegal practices, including the buying and selling of sperm, egg and surrogacy services.
The incident comes as Chinese authorities grapple with how to increase the country's birth rate as more young couples put off having children or opt to have none.
China's population fell for a second consecutive year in 2023 and Beijing in October rallied local governments to direct resources towards fixing China's population crisis to create a "birth-friendly" society.
Zhang Jing, 22, told state-backed Phoenix TV magazine that she donated her eggs out of financial desperation and then agreed to "rent out her uterus" to be impregnated for a total of 30,000 yuan ($4,152).
If she "successfully" delivered the baby, she would be paid a total of 240,000 yuan. At five months pregnant, she experienced severe complications and had to have an abortion.
Zhang's story amassed more than 86 million views and 10,000 comments on Chinese social media platform Weibo, with the hashtag "#2000s-born Surrogate Miscarriage Girl Speaks Out#."
The majority of comments strongly opposed surrogacy. Some warned that legalising surrogacy in China could lead to increased competition that would lower compensation and further devalue women.
"No woman could escape this if surrogacy were legalised," one user wrote, while another said, "Legalising surrogacy would drive down prices and commodify women."
Zhang's story ignited calls for a more thorough crackdown on illegal surrogacy by authorities, with some commenters warning that allowing the black market to continue to operate could even normalise human organ trafficking.
"Life should not be traded as a commodity," one user wrote. "If this extends to the sale of organs, it will only get darker and darker, and women will have no future."
The incident comes a few weeks after a 28-year-old pregnant woman who acted as a surrogate in China's southwestern city of Chengdu was allegedly abandoned by her surrogacy agency.
($1 = 7.2245 Chinese yuan renminbi)
Reporting by Ella Cao in Beijing and Farah Master in Hong Kong; Editing by Jamie Freed
Latest News
Disclaimer: The XM Group entities provide execution-only service and access to our Online Trading Facility, permitting a person to view and/or use the content available on or via the website, is not intended to change or expand on this, nor does it change or expand on this. Such access and use are always subject to: (i) Terms and Conditions; (ii) Risk Warnings; and (iii) Full Disclaimer. Such content is therefore provided as no more than general information. Particularly, please be aware that the contents of our Online Trading Facility are neither a solicitation, nor an offer to enter any transactions on the financial markets. Trading on any financial market involves a significant level of risk to your capital.
All material published on our Online Trading Facility is intended for educational/informational purposes only, and does not contain – nor should it be considered as containing – financial, investment tax or trading advice and recommendations; or a record of our trading prices; or an offer of, or solicitation for, a transaction in any financial instruments; or unsolicited financial promotions to you.
Any third-party content, as well as content prepared by XM, such as: opinions, news, research, analyses, prices and other information or links to third-party sites contained on this website are provided on an “as-is” basis, as general market commentary, and do not constitute investment advice. To the extent that any content is construed as investment research, you must note and accept that the content was not intended to and has not been prepared in accordance with legal requirements designed to promote the independence of investment research and as such, it would be considered as marketing communication under the relevant laws and regulations. Please ensure that you have read and understood our Notification on Non-Independent Investment. Research and Risk Warning concerning the foregoing information, which can be accessed here.
