Pregnant at all costs

A couple in Guangzhou, Guangdong Province, after finding they were unable to conceive, resorted to using in-vitro fertilization (IVF) treatment and two surrogate mothers to fulfill their desire to become parents.

However, their attitude toward these techniques may have been slightly too fertile as they ended up with eight children, three through IVF and five through surrogates.

These many happy occasions have turned somewhat sour since the local government finally cracked down on the couple this month, announcing a fine on the five children birthed through surrogacy as well as a "social fostering fee." 

Pay the price

The wealthy couple from the city's Panyu district paid over 100,000 yuan ($16,055) a month to a team of 11 babysitters hired for their kids. However, their financial woes may soon begin to add up.

According to local regulations for violators of the family planning policy, they might eventually face cumulative fines of more than 10 million yuan for the five surrogate children.

The other three were birthed in Hong Kong and are thus excluded from the punishment. This potential windfall for local authorities may be tricky to cash in since, according to local media, the couple's whereabouts are currently unclear.

Test-tube babies have returned to the fray of public debate since the news broke about the eight children.

The China Population Association revealed in a report earlier that more than 40 million people in China suffer from infertility, accounting for some 12.5 percent of the overall population able to conceive, up from 3 percent 20 years ago.

The growing rate has driven demand for both test-tube babies and surrogate pregnancies through the roof. 

Peking University Third Hospital, where China's first tube-test baby was born in 1988, sees about 1,500 patients visit every day in matters related to these procedures. The report pointed out that people between 25 and 30 years old are the age group with the highest instances of infertility.   

According to a Yangtse Evening News report, public hospitals in Suzhou, Jiangsu Province, dealt with around 1,000 tube-test surgeries this year, three times the level seen in 2011.

"We have to work overtime every day since our clinic is now far busier than our original capacity when we opened in 2006," said Yang, a doctor with a private medical institute specializing in fertility treatment in Shenzhen.

Value of a baby

The cost for a tube test in Hong Kong stands at around 100,000 yuan, said Yang, adding that this price is similar to that seen in Thailand.

This remains cheaper than the $20,000 it would cost in the US, said Zhao Ying (pseudonym), a 39-year-old woman from Beijing.

The drive to go overseas for such treatments is mostly due to the paperwork necessary to have a child in China, such as an official marriage certificate and a government permit. Furthermore, the growing success rate of IVF means that financially capable couples often hope to have twins, if not more. Homosexual couples are also beginning to represent a demand for children. Hospitals overseas are more than willing to accommodate their requests. 

It seems that having fertility treatment overseas also presents a better chance of success. The success rate for test-tube babies on the Chinese mainland ranges between 30 and 50 percent, said Yang, while in other countries, it can go as high as 60 percent.

"I've been relying on IVF and tube tests to have a baby since 2009. I've tried everything that Chinese and Western medicine have to offer, but still haven't got one," said Zhao.

She married her husband, who is in his 40s, six years ago but they were unable to conceive due to their relatively inactive sperms and ovum. Zhao then made six attempts to have test-tube babies in both China and Japan but failed each time.  

Dark side

He Yafu, an independent demographics analyst, said that while the increasing infertility rate has generated a boom for the legal IVF and other fertility treatment providers, it has also engendered a darker side to the trade. "It has created an underground demand for such treatments in poorer countries, as well as illegal clinics, unscrupulous middlemen, unverified surrogate mothers and unprofessional medical operations and drugs," He told the Global Times.

"It's illegal to seek a surrogate pregnancy on the mainland, and is also illegal in Hong Kong if a financial transaction is involved," He said, adding that some couples, even if they are capable to have children, seek treatments from unregistered institutes or private clinics that sell unsubscribed drugs to help them conceive twins.

"This poses a great danger to women, increases the abortion rate and causes harm to infants," He said.

A doctor surnamed Shen with the Nanyang City First People's Hospital in Henan Province told the Global Times that during test-tube surgeries, a woman usually has several fertilized embryos planted inside her womb to ensure at least one successfully develops. This also leads to a higher possibility of having twins or triplets.

"Due to the family planning policy, we sign agreements with couples before the surgery, that the couple will have to lose the extra embryos if several of them are found surviving in the womb," said Shen.

"I know some women who sought for surrogate mothers or directly bought sperm to have babies, usually behind their husbands' back," Zhao told the Global Times. In order to artificially inflate their success rate, some public hospitals in China do not accept couples at an elder age, for example above the age of 40, which also discourages locals and boosts business overseas, she said.