A growing number of Hong Kong people are turning to surrogacy as a last resort to fulfil their dreams of parenthood.
The US-based Surrogacy Centre Hong Kong - which specialises in matching Hongkongers with surrogates in the US who are willing to be reimbursed for their expenses and not paid for their services - says it gets about five inquiries a week from people in the city. Five years ago, it was only getting half that number.
Last year the centre helped 80 couples and individuals through surrogacy, of whom about 30 per cent were from Hong Kong and the mainland. In contrast, the agency had a total of just 10 cases when it was set up six years ago.
Surrogacy is tightly controlled in the city by the Council on Human Reproductive Technology, and commercial surrogacy is illegal.
'We believe surrogacy is becoming more popular because people are becoming more aware of it,' said Li Lan, the centre's practice manager. 'They are talking about it more and becoming more open about their experiences. The issue was hardly written or spoken about six to 10 years ago so not many people knew it was an option.'
But Professor Alfred Chan Cheung-ming, of Lingnan University, who chairs the Human Reproductive Technology Council's ethics committee, said: 'We don't feel the public is ready for this kind of conception. We are concerned it could arouse a lot of public anxiety if it was commercially legalised,'
Finding a volunteer to act as surrogate is the only option for women in Hong Kong. They must prove themselves incapable of carrying their own child following the recommendations of doctors and seek final approval from the council. No case, however, had ever met the requirements set by the council, Chan said.