Strange discoveries of 21 children at LA Home raise questions about the lack of surrogacy regulations
Removal of 21 children The Los Angeles-area couple’s custody of custody of couples is highlighting practices using agents to build families. There are no federal regulations for surrogacy, but if you choose to allow it, you leave it to the state to set rules.
Arcadia police said parents were taken to LA County Child Welfare Agency in May in May after being accused of not intervening in the abuse of their nannies.
The children range from two months to 13 years old, mostly 1-3 years old, police said. The FBI will not comment, but agents are investigating it. Sylvia Chang, 38, and 65-year-old Guojun Xuan did not respond to emails seeking comment.
Police believe Zhang gave birth to one or two children while Chang was born by the Surrogate. Some women who were paid for the couple’s agent say they are unaware that the couple has accumulated a super-large family and are questioning their intentions.
“What were they going to do with these kids?” San Francisco lawyer Deborah Waldo said his expertise includes surrogacy.
What is surrogacy?
Surrogacy is an agreement between the parties that a woman is usually pregnant and gives birth to a baby through embryo transfer. The intended parent or parent may suffer from infertility. They could also be same-sex couples.
Wald, who is not involved in the Arcadia case, has no restrictions on how many children someone can have by agent or other means.
She acknowledged that California is considered a “surrogacy-friendly condition” because it has clear laws about the process.
Both parties must have a lawyer and have a notarized contract written before embryo transfer, Waldo said.
“When this happens, California’s legal surrogacy community is very much suffering,” Wald said of the agent who feels deceived. “We’ve been working very hard on legal and ethical standards. When this happens, it hurts everyone.”
The role of matchmakers
There is a business that acts as a broker, connecting agents to those who want children. State business records show that a company called Mark Surrogacy Investment LLC was registered at Arcadia addresses in Zhang and Xuan.
It is not clear whether Zhang and Xuan set up the business solely to find their own agent. State records show that the company ended its business license in June.
Wald said there are no special licensing requirements for California because of businesses that match surrogates with intended parents.
Many questions remain
Wald noted that there should have been a lot of checks and balances in the process, focusing on the role of fertility clinics in handling embryos.
“The first place is usually a matching program that matches the agent with the intended parent. But in this situation, the intended parent was a matching program,” Waldo said. “I’m not familiar with other previous cases where it was true.”
Arcadia police said six children who were not present in the couple’s home were found along with family friends. The couple’s home was “established for the school environment,” said Colin Siedoro during the time.
Zhang and Xuan were accused of negligence and were arrested in May. For the investigation into abuse to continue, the accusations at the time were not formally pursued, and detectives now believe there are other instances of abuse, Cieadlo said.
The two-month-old infant suffered a traumatic head injury that is allegedly on the hands of the nanny, remains in a stable hospital, he said.
Keeping your family together
California law requires child welfare agencies to prioritize placing children who cannot be safe with their parents with extended families, and require that siblings be kept together, unless they are put at risk.
Children’s Law Centre has worked with several families with 10 to 12 children, Haimov said. She added that families with more than 20 children are “unusual.”
Finding a foster parent for large families that can cater to all of their child’s needs is more complicated, especially for infants, according to Haimov.
In addition to the cost and limited space, providing adequate stimulation and care for babies is difficult when they are at home with many other children, she said.
When many children are involved, the state can become creative so that siblings can maintain relationships with each other, such as placing them in the same area or in different but related households, Haymov said.
The case involving more than 20 children devised through surrogacy “suggests some legal questions,” Haymov said. “But that won’t change our advocacy. We want every child we represent to be in a loving, safe home.”
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White was reported from Detroit and ladder from Montgomery, Alabama.