- Title: IVF surrogacy - a class divide for gay parents in conservative China
- Date: 24th December 2018
- Summary: (SOUNDBITE) (Mandarin) 41-YEAR-OLD, DUAN RONGFENG, SAYING: "How can we tell the child (if we have one through international surrogacy)? Even though we joked and said we could ask the child to call you 'father' and call me 'daddy'. However, the underlying issue is how do we face this child, which is a big topic. Now we are living with Taotao's (nickname for Li Tao) mother. As a parent, how can Taotao's mother face this child? Of course, everyone will definitely be happy, but besides happiness, how is she going to visit family members with the child and tell friends and relatives whose child he/she is or through what channel we get this child? Perhaps this is a challenge when we face each family member." LI MAKING TEA WHILE DUAN SITS WITH DOG DUAN LOOKING ON / DOG LI POURING TEA INTO CUPS LI OFFERING DUAN WITH TEA DUAN DRINKING TEA LI AND DUAN WATCHING TV BEIJING, CHINA (DECEMBER 12, 2018) (REUTERS) DIRECTOR OF LGBTI + RIGHTS NGO "COMMON LANGUAGE", BIN XU, SPEAKING TO HER COLLEAGUE PAGES OF BOOKLET BEING TURNED (SOUNDBITE) (Mandarin) DIRECTOR OF LGBTI+ RIGHTS NGO "COMMON LANGUAGE", BIN XU, SAYING: "The challenge - which is a bit of a pity - is that the conditions for laws and regulations regarding childbearing in China are limited to families of married heterosexuals. Homosexual couples have no legal way to legally use reproductive technology. Many people have no choice but to go abroad to pay an extremely high fee to have children. Domestically reproductive services do exist in a bit of a grey area but actually the risk is very big because there are no legal guarantees. And when medical issues arise, it can be very troublesome." XISHUANGBANNA, YUNNAN PROVINCE, CHINA (DECEMBER 6, 2018) (REUTERS) YE AND AN WALKING TOGETHER WHILST EATING ICE CREAM YE AND AN WALKING TO GET LUNCH FOOD ON CONVEYER BELT YE AND AN EATING XISHUANGBANNA, YUNNAN PROVINCE, CHINA (RECENT - DECEMBER 5, 2018) (REUTERS) ZHIYA GETTING OUT OF TAXI AND BOUNCING TOWARDS CAMERA SAYING (Mandarin): "HELLO" / ZHIZHONG BOUNCING TOWARDS CAMERA ZHIYA'S HANDS PICKING UP GUMMY BEARS FROM TABLE ZHIYA AND ZHIZHONG SITTING IN LIVING ROOM
- Embargoed: 7th January 2019 09:39
- Keywords: homosexuality IVF surrogate gay parents LGBT gay marriage IVF triplets gay tripets in vitro fertilisation children Chinese gay family gay couple
- Location: XISHUANGBANNA, YUNNAN PROVINCE, BEIJING AND SHANGHAI CHINA
- City: XISHUANGBANNA, YUNNAN PROVINCE, BEIJING AND SHANGHAI CHINA
- Country: China
- Topics: Living / Lifestyle,Society/Social Issues,Editors' Choice
- Reuters ID: LVA0059CAYTL1
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: Gay couple An Hui and Ye Jianbin together with their three lively triplets turn heads when they navigate the streets of China. But an LGBT family with children is an exception rather than the rule for a country where raising a child can be a costly affair - let alone one born via surrogacy and conceived through In Vitro Fertilisation (IVF).
An, is an investment manager who shuffles between Shenzhen, Yunnan and Hong Kong. He and his partner were able to afford the sky high cost of IVF with a German egg donor, before their three boys - An Zhizhong, An Zhifei and An Zhiya - were carried to term via a Thai surrogate mother in 2014.
"If everyone were the same in our society, wouldn't it be terribly dull?" said An, as he brought his children to kindergarten and to a local market. "I think I'll probably have even more children... ten or 20. Anything is possible."
According to non-profit surrogacy organisation, Families Through Surrogacy, the average cost of hiring a surrogate in Thailand was $52,000 in 2014. Thailand has now outlawed commercial surrogacy after a well-known case of a foreign couple abandoning an IVF baby with Down Syndrome four years ago.
In the U.S., the cost of IVF and surrogacy comes up to over $100,000 on average, while in China, surrogacy and the trade of eggs and sperm are not allowed.
It is barriers like these that are giving another gay couple Duan Rongfeng and Li Tao pause when thinking of starting a family. The couple met in 2004, run a small advertising company together and got married in 2015 in the United States. With a total monthly income of around 30,000 yuan ($4,350), Duan does not believe he can afford to have a child currently.
"I remember I calculated previously and figured I had to sell a house if I wanted a child."
Duan said that the cost of raising a child and international school fees are also deterrent factors, "education and daily expenses are probably more expensive than that of a heterosexual couple's child," he added.
China runs a household registration system which issues "hukou" to individuals. Children who do not fall within the traditional family unit - such as children of gay parents or migrants etc - may not get a hukou and have no rights to a state-sponsored education and lose access to healthcare. Credit Suisse estimates that raising a child from birth to before reaching university age costs about 23,000 yuan ($3,335) per year in China, translating to 43 percent of the average household income.
In the past few decades, China has decriminalised homosexuality and removed homosexuality from the category of a mental illness. But Bin Xu, the director of Beijing-based LGBTI+ rights NGO, Common Language, said child-bearing remains "limited to the families of married heterosexuals."
However, Bin added that domestic reproductive services are still available, albeit in a grey area where would-be-parents are not protected by law if medical issues arise, forcing many to head overseas to ensure a level of legal protection for their child.
It was a consideration for An and Ye, whose three boys hold Hong Kong instead of Chinese citizenship. An said that raising three children will contribute to the fight against declining birthrates, adding that he knows around one hundred similar families to his around the country. An's company has even invested in a surrogacy company which has offices in Russia and Thailand and helps all kinds of couples.
China's declining birthrate and rapidly ageing population prompted a move by the government in 2016 to allow all couples to have a second child, relaxing restrictions on childbirth that had been in place for nearly four decades. Reports earlier this year claimed the country was planning to scrap all limits on the number of children a family can have by the end of this year.
However, China remains a conformist society with strong Confucian values and Duan said even if he and his partner were to have a child, they would have a hard time trying to explain to family, friends and even strangers.
"Everyone will definitely be happy, but besides happiness, how is she (mother-in-law) going to visit family members with the child and tell friends and relatives whose child he/she is or through what channel we get this child? Perhaps this is a challenge when we face each family member."
For now, the average gay Chinese couple like Duan and Li remain on the fence about having children, limited by their financial capabilities but also society's pressure at large. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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