CHINA FATHER SECRETLY USES SURROGATE TO HAVE BABY GIRL AFTER ONLY DAUGHTER, 29, TOLD HIM SHE WOULD NOT HAVE CHILDREN

Wife returns from work one day, sees strange woman at home holding infant
Husband hires surrogate to have longed-for child, furious wife threatens divorce

A woman in China has told how her husband resorted to secret surrogacy to acquire a baby because the couple's 29-year-old daughter refused to give him a grandchild.

The 53-year-old woman, surnamed Guo, said when she returned from work one day in September 2022, she saw a strange woman in her home holding an infant, according to Henan Television.

The stranger told Guo the child belonged to her and her husband, and she had been hired as a maid.

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A shocked Guo later learned that the baby was born via surrogacy after her husband paid an agency.

The child was carried by a university student, the report said.

Guo and her husband, who live in Yiyang, Hunan province in central China, have one daughter - their only child, who told them she does not want to marry or have children.

"My husband said, 'Your choice means I will never be a grandfather. What's the point of raising you? Not having a baby means you are not filial, according to Chinese traditional culture'," Guo said.

The man, whose age was not included in the report, said because the infant girl was so cute and healthy, he might ask the surrogacy institute for a boy next time.

"I flared up into a fury. I am going to divorce him," said Guo.

The husband stole his wife's identity card to apply for the infant's birth certificate which states that he is her father and Guo is her mother.

Guo's daughter, whose surname is Gao, said her father is absolutely not able to raise the infant alone. She is worried that once her parents are divorced, she will be left with the legal obligation to bring up the child.

"How ridiculous this is," Gao said.

The news report told the story of another man, aged 62, from Henan province in central China who also hired a surrogacy company without telling his family, so he could have a baby boy.

The man's daughter said her father had wanted a son for a long time.

"After the one-child policy was abandoned, my father asked my mother to have another child for him. But my mother was nearly 50 and she did not want to have another child," said the daughter.

She said the surrogacy company charged her father 540,000 yuan (US$75,000) and guaranteed the baby would be a boy.

Surrogacy is illegal in China. In 2023, the authorities issued a directive to crack down on the activity.

The story caused a heated discussion on mainland social media.

"I support surrogacy being illegal. Otherwise, women will just be used for their wombs," one online observer said on Douyin.

"Maybe in the future, dating couples will need to check their DNA to see if they are siblings," wrote another.