Expert calls California 'Wild West' for surrogacy after couple charged with abusing surrogate-born children
The case of a California couple recently accused of abusing children born to surrogates exposes the pitfalls of an industry one expert described as the "wild west."
Guojun Xuan, 66, and his wife, Silvia Zhang, 39, were arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to commit child abuse. Authorities said the couple operated their own surrogacy agency out of their home in Arcadia, California.
"I say it all the time. It's the wild, Wild West," Kallie Fell, executive director of the Center for Bioethics and Culture, told Fox News Digital.
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Xuan and Zhang allegedly abused more than a dozen surrogate-born children — some as young as 2 months old — inside their multimillion-dollar Arcadia residence.
Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman called the alleged abuse "appalling and revolting."
"This was not a home where these children were loved and nurtured," Hochman said when announcing the charges. "This was a home where these young children were systematically beaten and punished if they did not do what they were told."
In addition to the alleged abuse, the couple operated Future Spring Surrogacy from their home, recruiting surrogates and paying them tens of thousands of dollars. At least eight surrogates reported aggressive tactics and false statements regarding the family's living situation, officials said.
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"The thing about the case is that I wish it was shocking for me," said Fell, who opposes commercial surrogacy. "Because of the space I work in, I get to hear shocking stories around the globe — things that people don't realize the surrogacy industry has grown into. It's not just a place where couples who have been struggling with infertility go as a last resort to have a child."
"I mean, this has really turned into, if you have enough money to pay for it, then you can, by any means necessary, really have a child in California," she added.
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Unlike in some states, a license is not required in California to open a surrogacy agency, and there is no comprehensive regulatory framework to oversee the industry across the state.
Surrogacy is a billion-dollar global market used to help couples who are unable to conceive or carry a child. The issue, Fell noted, is that while the process is accessible to anyone who can afford it, there are no meaningful regulatory safeguards for the children born to surrogates.
"I was a foster parent," she said. "My husband and I went through gobs of courses, gobs of home studies, background checks, everything — really under a microscope. The same is not true for surrogacy. It doesn't apply."
As the surrogacy boom has expanded, foreign nationals — many from China — have increasingly used American surrogates to have children, according to a 2024 report by the Heritage Foundation.
Because commercial surrogacy is completely illegal inside China, wealthy Chinese individuals and couples frequently look abroad, primarily to the U.S., to grow their families.
While banned or heavily restricted in several other countries, cross-border surrogacy is not regulated at the federal level in the U.S., opening the door for foreign clients to secure American birthright citizenship for the resulting children, according to the conservative think tank.
"We absolutely need to close our borders to international surrogacy," Fell said. "Why do we need folks from overseas coming, renting wombs here in the United States?"