Chinese Couple Renting American Women’s Wombs Exposes Dark Side Of Surrogacy Industry

A surrogacy scandal involving a Chinese couple under investigation for alleged child abuse is drawing attention to lax regulations allowing anyone — including foreign nationals — to hire an American woman to deliver their child.

Police initiated a child abuse investigation into 38-year-old Silvia Zhang and 65-year-old Guojun Xuan after a two-month old in their care was hospitalized with a head injury in May, a local law enforcement official confirmed to the Daily Caller News Foundation. The Los Angeles Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS) subsequently removed 21 children from their custody, including some born from surrogates who worked with an agency called Mark Surrogacy.

Surrogacy agencies, operating with minimal legal accountability, are able to recruit American women via social media to carry their babies, frequently for individuals or couples living overseas.

The Mark Surrogacy case “exemplifies how lack of regulation, industry opacity, and power imbalances can facilitate exploitation” for both mothers and children, Center for Bioethics & Culture Network (CBC) Executive Director Kallie Fell told the DCNF.

“It raises concerns about potential trafficking, misuse of U.S. birthright citizenship, and the commodification of both women’s bodies and children,” she said. “Overall, the case underscores the urgent need for stronger laws, better protections for surrogates and children, and clearer ethical boundaries in the surrogacy industry.”

It is unclear at this point how many of the children in the Southern California couple’s home were born through surrogacy, Arcadia Police Department Lieutenant Kollin Cieadlo told the DCNF. Several women who had babies for the couple have come forward by sharing their experiences in surrogacy review groups on Facebook.

‘Wake-Up Call’

Kayla Elliott, who was a surrogate for Zhang and Xuan, eventually ended up in a group chat with five other women who carried for the same couple, she told Fell in a July 3 interview.

“There was actual, die-hard like picture proof of all these women holding their surrobabies with the same mom standing right next to them,” Elliott said. “Some of them were within weeks of each other.”

Elliott is now seeking custody of the baby girl she delivered.

“I’m reaching out with a heartfelt request for support as I seek legal placement of the baby girl I delivered as a surrogate,” Elliott wrote on her GoFundMe. “Due to unexpected circumstances, babygirl, along with many others, have been placed in foster care.”

Several other surrogates intend to seek custody of the children they carried, one woman who said she worked with Mark Surrogacy told the DCNF.

The situation “should be a wake-up call about the deeply imbalanced priorities in the U.S. surrogacy system,” Emma Waters, policy analyst at the Heritage Foundation’s Center for Technology and the Human Person, told the DCNF.

“California lawmakers have designed surrogacy laws to eliminate nearly all barriers for intended parents, allowing them to have as many children as they wish with minimal legal oversight or accountability for the well-being of the children,” she said. “What’s most alarming is that this couple didn’t break any California laws when they contracted these children through surrogacy over just a few years.”

Mark Surrogacy’s registration has been inactive since June 13, California records show. Its website is also no longer live.

The Chinese couple was initially arrested for alleged child endangerment and neglect, but the investigation is ongoing and no charges have been officially brought, Cieadlo told the DCNF. Xuan and Zhang were arrested May 9 and released May 13, according to Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department records.

“We anticipate filing charges against the mother and father within two to three weeks,” Cieadlo said. “Our primary focus is on the child abuse investigation. We have not investigated the surrogacy side of this case, but we will investigate that with the assistance of the FBI.”

An email associated with Mark Surrogacy told the DCNF that “recent media reports have published false or misleading information without verifying it with us, causing serious distress and harm to our family, our reputation, and our child.”

“As the matter is currently under judicial proceedings, we respect the rule of law and are actively engaging in the legal process,” the email stated. “To safeguard the fairness of the case and the privacy of those involved, we are unable to accept interviews or comment on specific issues at this time.”

The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California declined to comment. The FBI did not respond to requests for comment.

“While we recognize the public’s interest in the details about the lives of children and families who come to our attention, DCFS is bound by state confidentiality laws that prevent the department from discussing potential involvement with families,” a DCFS spokesperson said in a statement to the DCNF. “These laws are in place to protect children and families from further emotional distress while delicate family matters are resolved.”

‘Looking For A California Surrogate’

Social media “is now one of the most common recruitment channels for egg donors and surrogates,” Fell told the DCNF.

In surrogacy groups on Facebook, it’s common for international individuals — from China and elsewhere — to request U.S. surrogates.

“Couple from Sichuan, China who have two good quality embryos in an IVF center in San Diego, CA are looking for a California surrogate,” one August 2022 post in a Facebook group called “Want To Be A Surrogate Mother” states. “First time surrogate will be paid a base pay of $40,000, on top of that monthly allowance, maternity clothing, travel allowance etc. Can earn up to $60k – $65k.”

Requests for American surrogates on Facebook. Credit: Screenshot/Facebook

Elliott says she was contacted by Mark Surrogacy via direct messages after posting in surrogate match groups on Facebook

“We kind of started chatting through Facebook Messenger,” she told Fell. “And that’s how I came to meet this agency.”

One-third of surrogate pregnancies in the U.S. are for international parents, according to an April 2024 study from the American Society of Reproductive Medicine (ASRM). These intended parents are most likely to be from China, where surrogacy is banned, at 41.7%.

While the precise number of children born to foreign nationals through surrogacy is difficult to determine, foreign nationals went through 4,713 “gestational carrier cycles,” or attempts to implant an embryo, in 2020, according to ASRM data.

Agencies tailor their services in ways that reflect these demands, including by hiring case coordinators who speak Chinese.

When intended parents were unable to travel to the United States during COVID-19, the owner of one surrogacy agency said the company “hired a professional nanny service and rented a living space in Los Angeles where the babies could be cared for while Powers of Attorney were procured.”

“Eventually, these amazing nannies flew back to China with the babies, quarantined in China for two weeks, and then eventually reunited them with their international parents,” GSHC Surrogacy owner Jia Shen said in an interview.

Fell wants to end surrogacy in the U.S. — or at least outlaw commercial surrogacy and international arrangements.

“Organ donation does not allow the exchange of money, nor should an industry creating children,” she told the DCNF. “Woman’s bodies should not be for ‘rent’ and children should not be reduced to a purchased commodity.”

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