Questions about surrogacy are raised in case of California couple with house brimming with kids

The abolition of 21 children from the custody of a couple in the Los Angeles region highlighted the practice of using substitutes to build a family. Substituting maternity has no federal regulations, leaving states to the states to establish the rules if they choose to allow it.

The children – 15 in the couple’s manor and six others living elsewhere – were taken by a childhood protection agency in the County of Los Angeles in May after the parents were accused of not having intervened in the abuse of a baby by a nanny, said the Arcadia police.

Children are 2 months to 13 years old, with most of between 1 and 3, police said. The FBI does not comment but the agents investigate. Silvia Zhang, 38, and Guojun Xuan, 65, did not respond to emails asking for comments.

Police think that Zhang gave birth to one or two of the children while the others were born by a substitution. Some women who were paid for the couple’s substitutes now say that they did not know that the couple accumulated an oversized family, which raised questions about their intentions.

“What were they going to do with these children?” said Deborah Wald, lawyer in San Francisco whose expertise includes the law of substitution maternity.

Substitution maternity is an agreement between the parties so that a woman gets pregnant, generally through a transfer of embryos and deliver a baby. The planned parent or parents may find it difficult for infertility. They could also be same -sex couples.

There is no limit to the number of children that someone may have through substitutes or any other method, said Wald, which is not involved in the Arcadia case.

It has recognized that California is considered to be a “state adapted to maternity of substitution” because it has clear laws around the process.

The two parties must have lawyers, and there must be a written and notarial contract before a transfer of embryos, said Wald.

“The legitimate community of substitution maternity in California is very distressing when things like this happen,” said Wald about substitutes that feel deceived. “We have worked very hard on legal and ethical standards. It hurts everyone when something like it happens.”

There are businesses that act as mariners, connecting substitutes for people who want to have children. The state commercial files show that a company called Mark Mandarrogacy Investment LLC had been recorded at Arcadia address in Zhang and Xuan.

It is not clear if Zhang and Xuan have set up the company only to find substitutes for themselves. State files show that the company ended its commercial license in June.

Wald said there were no special licenses in California for companies that correspond to substitutes with planned parents.

Wald said there should have been many checks and counterweights in the process, noting the role of fertility clinics in manipulation of embryos.

“First place is generally the counterpart program which corresponds to substitution with a planned parent. But in this situation, the parents planned were the counterpart program,” said Wald. “I do not know any other previous case where it was true.”

Arcadia police said the six children who were not at the couple’s home were found with family friends. The couple’s house was “installed for a school environment,” said Lieutenant Kollin Cieadlo.

Zhang and Xuan were accused of negligence and arrested in May. The accusations were not officially prosecuted at that time for an investigation into the abuse, and the detectives now believe that there have been other cases of abuse, said Cieadlo.

A 2 month old child with a head trauma, allegedly in the hands of a nanny, remains in a hospital in a stable state, he said.

Californian law obliges child protection agencies to prioritize the place of places that cannot be with their parents in enlarged family houses, and demands that the brothers and sisters be kept together unless he puts the child in danger, said Leslie Heimov, the executive director of Childre’s Law Center of California.

Children’s Law Center worked with certain families with 10 to 12 children, Heimov said. A family with 20 or more children is “unusual”, she added.

It is more complicated to find reception houses for larger families that can meet all children’s needs, especially for infants, said Heimov.

In addition to expenses and limited space, it is difficult to give infants stimulation and the appropriate care they need if they are in a house with many other children, she said.

In cases involving many children, the state will sometimes be creative to ensure that the brothers and sisters can maintain relationships with each other, like placing them in the same neighborhood, or placing them in different but related households, said Heimov.

A case involving more than 20 children conceived by a substitution maternity “would present legal issues,” said Heimov. “But that would not change our plea – we want each child we represent in a loving and safe house.”

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White reported to Detroit and Riddle de Montgomery, in Alabama.