A surrogacy agency turned out to be a front for a couple who had at least 21 children via many surrogates and are suspected of child neglect and abuse.
Kayla Elliot, a 27-year-old from Texas, became a surrogate last year for Guojun Xuan, 65, and Silvia Zhang, 38, a Southern California couple who told Elliot they struggled with infertility. The three were matched through the agency Mark Surrogacy, and Elliot gave birth to a healthy baby girl in March.
Weeks later Elliot learned that the baby had been taken away from her biological parents.
Xuan and Zhang, it turns out, ran Mark Surrogacy agency as a front for themselves. Mark Surrogacy was registered to the couple’s home address and facilitated the birth of 21 known children — all of whom are Xuan and Zhang’s legal children. Police believe they may all be the couple’s biological children as well, though DNA tests have not been released. Surrogates now allege that the couple tricked women from across the United States into bearing their children.
The bizarre surrogacy ring was discovered only after authorities in Arcadia, Calif., were called to investigate a case of child abuse against the couple. Their two-month-old baby suffered a traumatic head injury and was hospitalized. One of the six nannies the couple employs is the believed perpetrator of the abuse. The couple was arrested on suspicion of felony child endangerment but were released on bond soon after.
During the investigation, police found “numerous children — 15 children to be specific — ranging in ages from 2 months to 13 years old” in the couple’s home and six of the couple’s children at other homes in the area. It’s believed that the couple ran their mansion somewhat like a hotel, with each nanny assigned to one room and multiple children. Police took all of the children into custody, where they remain in protective care. Xuan and Zhang have not been charged with anything so far, but police suspect further incidents of child abuse.
The couple’s defense? They “wanted a large family.” And even though 17 of the children are under the age of three, which raises questions about child neglect, having a large number of children via surrogacy is legal. Very few regulations exist on the practice of surrogacy, and no authorities thought to, or had to, ask, “What are you going to do with all these children?”
Surrogates must enter into notarized contracts with intended parents, but beyond that, there are no safeguards or licensing requirements to ensure that a surrogacy matchmaking business like Mark Surrogacy is legitimate. There are no laws against parents hiring multiple surrogates at the same time, either.
“It’s horrific, it’s disturbing, it’s damaging emotionally,” Kayla Elliot said. “These agencies, we’re supposed to trust them and follow their guidance and come to find out this whole thing was a scam, and the parents own the agency — that was not disclosed at all beforehand.”
The surrogate mothers whom Mark Surrogacy convinced to carry were moved by Xuan and Zhang’s pleas; they felt bad for the couple and wanted to be generous by helping another woman with infertility. But as anti-surrogacy advocates warned years ago, people don’t always make good choices or have good intent.
Alexa Fasold, 26, became a surrogate for Mark Surrogacy, whose business license has since been terminated, in January. The baby boy is due this fall, and as it stands, Fasold doesn’t know what will happen to the baby she’s carrying; the agency stopped replying to her. Although she’s bound by a confidentiality clause to not release the names of the baby’s intended parents, it’s not difficult to draw conclusions.
American children born to Chinese nationals via surrogacy is the latest iteration of “birth tourism.” Although advocates both for and against surrogacy will agree that the industry’s unregulated nature is a huge problem in this case, treating pregnancies and children as a commercial enterprise is the problem. The nefarious, highly suspicious, and at times downright abusive things that happen as a result of surrogacy are natural byproducts of commodifying reproduction.
In this case, especially, I struggle to see how a regulatory apparatus would have even helped. Can government decide whether a couple that “wants a large family” is sincere or not? Why can’t a woman hire multiple surrogates at one time, if she’s financially able? Questions like these should force people to consider whether it’s the lack of regulation that allows for exploitation or the industry itself.