Hong Kong’s IVF Rules Send People Into Black Market for Eggs, Embryos
As the city contends with a falling birth rate, the limits of reproductive assistance are causing strains.
Strict reproductive assistance rules are emerging as both an equality and economic problem for one of the world’s financial hubs.
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A woman in Hong Kong had to travel to two different countries to attempt conceiving a baby on her own. A gay couple in the city resorted to even bigger extremes: Banned from surrogacy, they turned to the black market in mainland China to have their first child.
At a time Hong Kong is trying to reverse one of the world’s lowest birth rates, residents seeking to have a baby outside of traditional means are running into strict rules on fertility treatments. That’s leading some of them to go abroad for expensive — and sometimes illegal — measures to have a shot at parenthood.