Illegal fetus gender testers busted

Police in east China's Wenzhou city have cracked a gang suspected of offering illegal fetus gender tests via medical institutions in Hong Kong, it was announced on Tuesday.

Dr Chen, 35, working at a private clinic in Longwan District of Wenzhou, Zhejiang Province, started to collect blood samples of pregnant women who wanted to know the gender of their fetus in 2013.

Two women, Zhong and Shi, claiming they were from Hong Kong, phoned Chen and asked him to collect blood samples from their customers in Wenzhou, and then consigned the samples to Shenzhen where they were sent on to Hong Kong for tests. Chen was to received 800 yuan ($130) from each customer. Customers spent 5,800 yuan to 7,500 yuan on the test.

Chen's wife and a classmate also worked with the gang.

Police investigation showed that Chen and his accomplices took blood from about 300 women, making illegal profits of over 200,000 yuan.

The police also found that Zhong, who claimed she was from Hong Kong, is a native of Leping City in east China's Jiangxi Province. Zhong acted as the Shenzhen intermediary.

Over 2,000 women in Wenzhou had the illegal tests and some of them had abortion on the basis of the results, the police said. Fourteen people have been detained so far.

Though it is illegal in China for medical institutions or individuals to determine the sex of a fetus unless it is medically necessary, a black market has developed in the practise. During the era of the one-child policy, a traditional preferences for male children meant many women chose to abort after learning they were carrying girls.

Family planning officials in Wenzhou said that recent changes to the birth contol policy have also contributed to the gender test business, as some families qualified for a second child want to choose the gender of their second child.