Expert Calls California the "Wild West" of Surrogacy After Couple Accused of Abusing Surrogate Children

Guojun Zhuan and Sylvia Zhang allegedly abused children born via surrogacy while running an unlicensed surrogacy agency in California from their home.

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Kali Fell, director of the Center for Bioethics and Culture, explains the lack of background checks, home studies and regulations in commercial surrogacy.

The case of a California couple recently accused of abusing children born to surrogate mothers exposes the pitfalls of an industry one expert describes as the "Wild West."

Guojun Xuan, 66, and his wife, Sylvia Zhang, 39, were arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to commit child abuse. Authorities said the couple operated their surrogacy agency from their home in Arcadia, California.

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Juan and Zhang allegedly abused more than a dozen surrogate children — some as young as 2 months old — at their multimillion-dollar Arcadia residence.

Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman called the alleged abuse "appalling and outrageous."

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"This home was not a place for these children to be loved and nurtured," Hochman said when announcing the charges. It was a home where these young children were systematically beaten and punished if they didn't do what they were told.

In addition to the alleged abuse, the couple performed surrogacy surgery at their home the following spring, hired surrogates and paid them tens of thousands of dollars. At least eight officials said surrogates reported aggressive tactics and false statements about the family's living conditions.

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Fell, who opposes commercial surrogacy, said: “The thing about this case is that I wish it was shocking. Because of the environment I work in, I hear shocking stories all over the world—things people don't know the surrogacy industry has grown into. "It's not just a place where couples struggling with infertility go as a last resort to have a child."

Pregnant woman's belly with small teddy bear. A conceptual image with a symbol of many meanings for the expectant mother during her pregnancy and her unborn baby. (iStock)

"I mean, it's really become, if you have enough money to pay for it, you can actually have a child in California by any means necessary," she added.

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Unlike some states, California does not require a license to open a surrogacy agency, and there is no comprehensive regulatory framework to oversee the industry across the state.

Surrogacy is a billion-dollar global market used to help couples who are unable to conceive or bear children. The problem, Fell noted, is that while the process is available to anyone who can afford it, there are no meaningful oversight guarantees for surrogate-born children.

"My husband and I went through training, home studies, background checks, everything — really under the microscope. It's not the same with surrogacy. It doesn't apply," says a Bodav.

As the surrogacy boom expands, foreign nationals — many from China — are increasingly using American surrogates to have children, according to a 2024 report by the Heritage Foundation.

Because commercial surrogacy is completely illegal within China, wealthy Chinese individuals and couples often look abroad, primarily to the United States, to raise their families.

While banned or severely restricted in several other countries, cross-border surrogacy is not federally regulated in the United States, opening the door for foreign clients to secure American citizenship for the resulting offspring, according to the conservative think tank.

"We absolutely must close our borders to the womb of an international surrogate," Fell said. "Why do we need people from abroad to surrogate here in the United States?"

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