Chinese social media reels over young woman's illegal surrogacy case

Weibo

14/11/2024 01:02

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)
 ((farah.master@thomsonreuters.com))