In China, fertility clinics sprouting

BEIJING -- In a country known the world over for its strict one-child policy, Cui Hui and his wife would give anything to have that only child.

Married for eight years, he runs a successful Internet company and she teaches at a university. They were busy pursuing their careers and kept thinking there would be time down the road to start a family. Now, both 33, they are having trouble conceiving.

``We feel a lot of pressure from our peers and our parents," Cui said. ``They are always asking, `When are you going to have a child?' " Unable to deflect the questions and too embarrassed to tell the truth, the Cuis decided to seek professional help.

Just a decade ago, reproductive intervention -- other than herbal remedies and prayers to the goddess of fertility -- was a foreign concept to average Chinese.

Today, doctors in the world's most populous nation are helping people make more babies.

``Our country's focus in the past has been on birth control, how to bring down the population," said Dr. Zuo Wenli, a reproductive specialist at Peking University's No. 1 Hospital. ``We did not encourage fertility treatments. Now we have a more humane approach. If people can't have children, you must allow them to get help."

The first few fertility clinics popped up about eight years ago, and demand is so high that at least 170 around the country now offer reproductive services, some industry experts say. Others contend that the number is much higher, as unlicensed facilities lured by the perceived easy profit of the baby business compete with legitimate hospitals for the trust of childless couples.

Some healthy couples are getting fertility treatments in hope of increasing their chances of having twins or triplets.

``It's a subtle way of ducking the one-child policy without actually breaking the rules," Cui said. ``If it's possible, I too would like to have more than one child."

The government has just begun to crack down on an industry that until a few years ago was left largely unregulated. Recently, a senior health official reinforced the country's ban on surrogate mothering, as well as the unauthorized exchange of eggs and sperm, saying offenders would be harshly punished.

Clinics are required to get a government license to provide fertility treatments, but many do it illegally. The government has promised more inspections to close illegal operators, which might have inadequately trained doctors and make false promises of multiple births.

The private clinics spend heavily on advertising on nearly two dozen satellite TV stations and in local newspapers around the country, hiring movie stars and pop singers and promising to work miracles.

The cultural stigma of acknowledging fertility problems has lessened, and many people who once might have suffered in silence are seeking help, said Dr. Zhuang Guanglun, one of the veterans of fertility treatment in China. He works at Zhongshan Medical University's Number One Hospital in Guangzhou, which treats about 1,300 couples a year.

``Before, you did not want to admit you couldn't have a baby on your own," Zhuang said. ``Even if you did want to admit it, China was too backward. People were worrying about putting food on the table. How could they imagine a test-tube baby?"

Now that economic reforms have made a large number of Chinese people rich and well-informed, fertility clinics have become a new beacon of hope, even as the government targets some of the enterprises.

Two years ago, Lu Jinfeng founded China's first surrogate mother website. It promises to introduce sterile couples to women willing to carry fetuses to term. The most desired candidates for surrogate motherhood have a college degree, are at least 5 feet, 3 inches tall and have no health problems, not even near-sightedness.

The cost is $5,000 to $12,000, depending on the surrogate's educational and physical qualifications. To get around the law against such arrangements, insemination must take place outside China. That expense, and all medical costs as well as care for the surrogate mother during the pregnancy, must be paid for by the client. Lu claims to have successfully helped 200 couples produce offspring.