Debate in China on belly surrogacy due to news of alleged abandonment of babies born by this procedure
A debate broke out in China last week regarding surrogacy after news broke that a well-known actress, Zheng Shuang, abandoned two babies born by this reproductive technique in the United States.
A friend of Zhang Heng, Zheng’s ex-boyfriend and father of the babies, leaked an audio in which the actress is allegedly heard screaming and complaining that it was too late for the woman carrying the couple’s second child to end the pregnancy. .
This person also leaked the birth certificates of the babies, one born in December 2019 in Colorado and a girl born in January 2020 in Nevada, and although it has not been proven that she is the biological mother, her name appears on the certificates. as mother and Zhang as father. Additionally, Zhang wrote a message on Monday last week on the Chinese social network Weibo saying that he was stranded in the United States with the two babies. According to this friendship, he has not been able to return to China with his children because Zheng refuses to cooperate in the legal process.
The actress has not declared much on the subject, but it is known that the Italian luxury goods brand Prada, decided to terminate the contract it had with her as an image in China.
In China, surrogacy is prohibited as provided in Article 3 of the Chinese Administrative Measures on Assisted Reproductive Technology of Human Beings, promulgated in 2001, which prohibits institutions and medical personnel from performing any type of reproductive procedure that involves surrogacy.
However, as in all countries where this technique of reproduction is prohibited, Chinese couples who wish to be fathers and mothers go to clinics in countries where surrogacy is allowed to procreate their children from their genetic material . In these cases, couples who thus produce children cannot be held liable under Chinese law because they are beyond their jurisdiction.
The abandonment of babies is another issue, as stated by lawyer Zhang Jing specializing in Family Law, due to the Law on the application of laws in civil relations concerning foreigners that extends China’s jurisdiction to the crime of abandonment of minors in abroad. Thus, the Criminal Code of China defines as a crime that merits a sentence of no more than five years in prison, abandonment that includes the refusal to comply with the duty to support an elderly or sick person, a minor or any other person who cannot live independently.
However, the lawyer observes, it will be difficult to prove that Zheng abandoned the babies because the father is taking care of them and they have not been left helpless.
According to the Global Times, Ukraine is the preferred destination for Chinese couples who want to have babies and one third of the infants born in that country as a result of this technique are Chinese. According to the media, the cost of being a parent in Ukraine is about $ 50,000, while doing so in the United States can cost up to $ 170,000, an amount that includes the medical procedure, the payment to the surrogate mother and the fees of the lawyers.
Zheng’s baby abandonment scandal opened the door for debate on the issue with some people leaning toward making surrogacy banned and others leaning the other way.
“Surrogacy is a complicated subject that has deep social roots. Banning it or strictly legalizing it could worsen the plight of surrogate mothers in some ways, ”said Chen Yaya, a researcher at the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences. “We need more research to solve this dilemma.”
And while there are couples who spend thousands of dollars to have children with their genetic material, due to the strict one-child policy that remains in force in large Chinese cities, dramatic stories of babies abandoned on the streets and even in garbage dumps have been reported (about 100,000 a year, mostly girls) by parents who cannot face the steep fines the government imposes for fathering a second child.
More information globaltimes.cn
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