A wealthy couple in Arcadia, Los Angeles County, hired many surrogates who initially did not know one another, resulting in more than two dozen children. Secrecy and suspicious circumstances prompted an FBI investigation into whether the children were being trafficked, which the parents deny. Authorities began investigating in May after an infant was hospitalized with severe injuries. Several siblings under age three were found with marks, bruises, and missing fingernails. The parents were briefly jailed on suspicion of child endangerment, denied abuse allegations, and have not been charged. A juvenile-dependency court ruled the family should not be reunified. Since the arrest, the couple had at least six more children through surrogates, with custody and parentage proceedings ongoing across multiple states. The case raises concerns about limited regulation in the surrogacy industry amid growing use of reproductive technologies.
"They had amassed more than two dozen children by hiring many surrogates who, at first, knew nothing of one another. The secrecy and suspicious circumstances surrounding Xuan's family prompted an F.B.I. investigation into whether he and his partner were trafficking the children. (The parents have denied that their children were for sale.)"
"Authorities began their investigation this past May, after police heard that one of the infants had been hospitalized with severe injuries. The baby's siblings, most of whom were under the age of three, were found with marks, bruises, missing fingernails. The parents were briefly jailed on suspicion of child endangerment-they have not yet been charged with a crime and have refuted abuse allegations-and their kids were taken into foster care, where they remain to this day."
"The juvenile-dependency court has just decided that the family, seemingly Arcadia's largest, should not be reunified-news that I break in my follow-up piece, out this week. This ruling has far-reaching repercussions. Since the couple's arrest, they have had at least six more children, also through surrogates. Those siblings are trapped in various stages of custodial and parentage proceedings in Georgia, Virginia, and Pennsylvania."
"As advances in reproductive technology have enabled men to competitively procreate at new scales, there have been a spate of reports of üüber-wealthy parents having dozens of, even a hundred, children, through some combination of in-vitro fertilization, sperm donation, and surrogacy. These family-making projects are often classified as outliers, but they may simply be the most well-known instances of a quietly growing trend. The case of the family in Arcadia has raised questions about the broader lack of regulation in the surrogacy industry, especially given this tide toward reproductive"
Read at The New Yorker
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