A Chinese billionaire has allegedly bought hundreds of babies through surrogacy.
The video game developer Xu Bo is reported to have over 100 children, although an ex-girlfriend claims the figure was closer to 300. One of the surrogate mothers he hired said she was told he was using more than 20 surrogates simultaneously.
In the UK, commercial surrogacy is banned. However, purchasing a baby abroad and bringing the child back to the UK is permitted. Between 2014 and 2023, more than half of intended parents using surrogacy travelled abroad to acquire a child, with the US being the most common destination.
Completely unethical
US broadcaster CBS News interviewed one of the surrogate mothers used by the billionaire. The woman said she felt “blindsided” when she found out the identity of the father of her child, adding: “I just know that it’s going to be hard for the children.”
Attorney Melissa Brisman explained that, despite most Americans believing that it is “completely unethical” for a person to secretly be using multiple surrogate mothers at the same time, “there are no laws governing the number of surrogates intended parents can use”.
Earlier this year, two US senators wrote to the Attorney General about their concerns of Chinese nationals “systematically exploiting America’s surrogacy and birthright citizenship laws”, with agencies catering “almost exclusively to wealthy Chinese clients”.
‘Sickening trade’
Campaign organisation Surrogacy Concern responded to the story, saying: “Surrogacy is a sickening trade in human children. It needs to be banned. Now.”
Katy Faust, a children’s right campaigner, said it was a “tragedy” that this man has 100 motherless children. She wrote on X: “Spoiler: commercializing motherhood = modern day harems, w children as products”
Pro-life group Live Action commented: “Surrogacy is, at its core, a commodification of human beings, with women and children alike treated as products to be bought and sold. Xu’s case is perhaps a more extreme example, but he is hardly alone.”
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