Fertility Inc.: One Dad, One Hundred Babies
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What legal processes are involved in surrogacy?
It was 2023, and inside an LA family court, clerks were working through some documents. They're what's known as parentage petitions. If you've enlisted a surrogate to carry your baby, then you need a judge to approve your parentage petition in order to actually take the baby home. It's basically the court saying, yes, this kid is legally yours.
Once this child is born, you, the parents, have the parental rights to the child. You are clear to put your name on the birth certificate.
That's investigative reporter Katherine Long. And are these usually contentious petitions?
No. Typically, these are, you know, I hesitate to say rubber-stamped, but it's a fairly simple process.
But this time, the clerks noticed something. one name kept showing up over and over again.
A man named Shu Bo had put his name on at least four applications for parental rights for children who were as yet unborn but were being carried by surrogates.
The same guy, Shu Bo, was applying for parental rights to at least four babies being carried by surrogates.
The clerks thought that was a little strange.
Who is Xu Bo and why is he notable in the surrogacy industry?
It's not terribly common to have that many simultaneous surrogacies. They started poking around and they realized that in addition to those at least four children, Shubo already had or was in the process of having eight other children.
That's 12 kids total. 12 kids, all born via surrogacy, all with the same father. This sounds crazy.
It was certainly unusual.
When Catherine and her colleagues started digging into the surrogacy industry, they got curious about one particular corner of that business. The corner that serves wealthy Chinese parents.
When we started speaking with people who work in this corner of the surrogacy industry that caters to Chinese parents, something that we kept hearing was concerns about a small number of Chinese parents who seem to want to have extremely large numbers of children.
Think 10 children, 20 children, even, I kid you not, 100 children.
When I first heard about this, I thought this had to be an exaggeration. This had to be made up. But then we started looking into it and it turned out to be true.
Welcome to The Journal, our show about money, business, and power. I'm Ryan Knudsen.
What cultural factors influence Chinese parents seeking surrogacy?
It's Friday, March 20th.
Coming up, another story from our investigation into the fertility industry. Today, one dad, 100 babies.
In many countries around the world, surrogacy is illegal. So international parents looking to have a baby this way often head to the U.S., These days, about 40% of U.S. surrogacies are for parents from abroad. And about 40% of those parents come from just one country, China.
You've got to understand the Chinese policy. A single woman cannot get fertility treatment in China. You cannot do sex selection in China. And gay is not legally recognized in China.
That's Nathan Zhang. He runs a business that helps Chinese parents access the U.S. fertility industry, which many consider to be the best in the world.
How is the surrogacy industry structured to accommodate wealthy clients?
For the IVF fertility clinical side, U.S. is like the NBA in the basketball field. Those are the best players, physicians, and lab technicians and biologists, and also the...
Nathan's business is basically a concierge service. He hooks Chinese customers up with IVF clinics, egg donors, sperm banks, surrogacy agencies, and lawyers. When he got into the industry about 15 years ago, Nathan says he catered to a pretty niche demographic, rich Chinese business people who'd tried having kids the traditional way and failed. But more recently, he told me, his customer base has expanded. He sees more gay couples now, more single women, and more wealthy clients looking to build big families. So our colleagues have been reporting on this trend of Chinese customers, often who are very rich, who want lots of babies. Have you seen that in your business?
Yeah, we saw a lot, just actually traditional Chinese. We already have bigger families, and my grandparents have seven siblings on my father's side, and my grandfather, my grandmother has like six siblings. But it just, that's the Chinese traditional culture.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What legal processes are involved in surrogacy?
0:05–1:29
2
Who is Xu Bo and why is he notable in the surrogacy industry?
1:29–3:10
3
What cultural factors influence Chinese parents seeking surrogacy?
3:10–4:26
4
How is the surrogacy industry structured to accommodate wealthy clients?
4:26–6:09
5
What are the costs associated with surrogacy in the U.S.?
6:09–7:02
6
What challenges do surrogates face in this industry?
7:02–8:11
7
What are the implications of unregulated surrogacy practices?
8:11–9:39
8
How many children does Xu Bo reportedly have, and what are the controversies surrounding it?
9:39–24:05