The dangers of carrying a child for someone else in China

livemint.com:

shrinking population, China’s approach to surrogacy is rather counterproductive—to say nothing of its effect on families. With couples waiting longer to have children, demand for surrogacy in China seems to be growing. By one estimate, over 10,000 babies are born via the process every year in the country.

But the path clients and their surrogates must navigate is full of risks. The first step, at least, is easy. Agencies that connect people with surrogates and, if needed, egg or sperm donors operate in the open.

Your correspondent found an employee of one such agency on social media. His account contained pictures of dozens of prospective egg donors from various countries. It included their height, blood type, education and whether they had had plastic surgery.

“There are many Chinese ‘egg-sisters’. You are welcome to inquire about them," said a message on his page. Chinese clients usually want their surrogates to be Chinese too, says the agency employee.

The surrogates often come from poor, rural areas and have already had their own children. They can earn tens of thousands of dollars per pregnancy. In some villages in Hubei province, where two hospitals are under investigation for selling fake birth certificates, surrogacy has become a common way for local women to make money, according to an investigation by Chinese media in 2017.

But it is a dangerous job. Agencies are known to confiscate surrogates’ identity cards during pregnancies for leverage. Bad medical care can leave them with health problems.

Sometimes agencies promise clients a boy, the gender favoured by traditional families. If the fetus is a girl, surrogates can be forced to have an abortion. The law is not much help if a dispute arises between a