台灣英文新聞-Taiwanese probed on suspicion of importing Uzbek surrogate mothers

Taipei, May 20 (CNA) Three Taiwanese men are under investigationby police on suspicion of importing women from Uzbekistanspecifically for childbearing purposes.

The three men -- a doctor, a businessman and a pharmacistidentified only by their last names Kuo, Shao and Lien, respectively-- are believed to have brought four Uzbek women to Taiwan since 2007to serve as surrogate mothers.
According to the police, two of the women had three children withKuo, one woman had one child fathered by Shao, and the other womanleft Taiwan without having any children. Three of women have alreadyleft the country, the police said.

Shao, who operates a factory in Uzbekistan, is married to a Uzbekwoman and they have one child, the police said.

Shao claimed that his wife was unable to have any more childrenand admitted to bringing a Uzbek woman to Taiwan in 2007 at cost ofUS$30,000 to serve as a surrogate mother, according to the police.

The woman came to Taiwan under the pretext of studying Chineseand was impregnated with Shao's sperm through artificialinsemination, the police said. She was paid US$1,000 for each monthof her stay in Taiwan and she left in August 2008 after giving birthto a baby boy who was later adopted by Shao, the police said.

According to the police, Shao's wife was kept in dark about thewhole process.

Surrogate parenting is not allowed in Taiwan and doctors whoknowingly perform artificial insemination prodecures for such apurpose could have their licenses suspended.

Kuo, a doctor who worked at a clinic owned by Shao and located inCidu, Keelung City, was quite taken with Shao's two blonde childrenwas eager to have one of his own, the police said.

However, since Kuo was in the process of divorcing his wife atthe time, he hatched a plan for Lien -- a friend and colleagues ofhis and Shao's -- to engage in a fake marriage with a Uzbek woman andbring her to Taiwan, the police said.

According to the police, the woman bore Kuo a baby girl inFebruary 2008 through artificial insemination and has since remainedin Taiwan and assumed the family name of Kuo.

Using a similar ploy, the doctor impregnated another foreignwoman and brought her to Taiwan, supposedly to study Chinese, thepolice said, adding that in March 2010 she gave birth to twin boys.

Before that, in March 2009 Shao had brought in another Uzbekwoman to have a child for him but during a routine check at theartificial insemination clinic the woman was found be HIV positiveand the clinic alerted the Keelung City Health Office, the policesaid.

In a bid to foil the system, Shao asked the Uzbek woman surnamedKuo to pose as the other woman and to request another HIV test, thistime at a Taipei City clinic, the police said.

When the test came up negative, the police said, the discrepancyin the two results was brought to the attention of the healthauthorities who began to look into the case and found that the bloodsamples had come from two different persons.

The woman who was found to be HIV positive left the countrybefore health officials could track down her and the whole scheme wasexposed, according to the police.

All the other people believed to be involved in the case weretaken by police to the Taipei District Prosecutors' Office Wednesdayfor questioning.

Kuo, Shao and Lien were released on bail, while the Uzbek womansurnamed Kuo was taken to an immigrant shelter as Lien had thrown herout after the scheme was exposed, the police said.

(By Maubo Chang)


Question and Discussion:

Three men were allegedly involved in bringing Uzbek women into Taiwan to bear children. Please answer the following questions

1. Can you give the possible reasons for those three men to have the Uzbek women
    bear their babies?

2. Do you think surrogate motherhood should be legalized or forbidden?


3. Do you think it a good idea or bad idea if everyone can control his/her offspring

    via gene technology?




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