CIB busts a surrogate mother ring

Updated Sunday, December 27, 2009 12:24 am TWN, The China Post news staff

CIB busts a surrogate mother ring

Changhua, Taiwan -- The Criminal Investigation Bureau (CIB) busted a transnational group that offered surrogate mother services in Changhua County Thursday.

Suspect Lo Hsien-lung, his Thai wife surnamed Wu, and four other accomplices were detained on Christmas Eve on charge with the violation of the Human Fertilization and Embryology Act.

This is the first case in Taiwan of these such services being offered online.

To avoid the trace from the law enforcement, the ring set up the Web site in California two years ago, and established operation bases in Thailand and Cambodia, said CIB.

The online platform provided services in traditional Chinese, simplified Chinese, English, and Japanese, said the police.

The group sought potential surrogate mothers in Thailand and Vietnam.

Good-looking surrogate mothers or candidates with higher education background fetched a higher price for the ring from couples that yearn for a baby.

According to the CIB, each case cost around NT$1.6 million, and the surrogate mothers had given birth to some 20 babies for Taiwanese couples.

The group had made a profit of at least NT$30 million, said the officials.

Yet the actual amount of money made from the surrogate cases outside of Taiwan was not available as of yesterday.

After the infertile couples signed the contract, paid partial outlay in U.S. dollars, they would be guided to Thailand or Cambodia to take the sperms and ovum, and then embryos would be implanted into the chosen surrogate mothers, said the police.

The gang also offered “higher quality” services, said the CIB. After the surrogate mothers were confirmed pregnant, they would move into designated apartments in the same community where Lo lived in Taiwan.

The customers had to pay the surrogate mothers' life expenses.

The ring registered the children under infertile Thai couples in hospitals in Thailand, and completed the adoption process in Taiwan with the documents authorized by the hospitals, added the CIB.

According to the existing laws in Taiwan, persons who benefit from the surrogate cases violate the Human Fertilization and Embryology Act.

Registering the children of their own is also against the law, added the officials.

The parents would be charged with forgery, and possibly with human trafficking if the eggs were from a third party.

The police yesterday questioned the parents of five children who were born by surrogate mothers and found that the customers include infertile couples and single women.

The documents of the five children clearly listed the fathers and mothers according to eggs donors, thus forgery was not involved, said the police.

The investigators would further investigate if the ring involved forgery and human trafficking.

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