The Baby Collectors

"Elliott, who lived in Texas, signed a contract with a surrogacy agency in Los Angeles, and indicated that she was eager to be in close contact with the people whose child she would be carrying, a mid-sixties man named Guojun Xuan and the woman identified as his wife, Silvia Zhang. But the couple was barely in touch with Elliott during the pregnancy, and then, on the day that she went into labor, Silvia arrived late to the hospital, hours after Elliott had given birth."

"Elliott took note of Silvia's odd behavior when she finally did show up to take the baby, and, in the months that followed, she began digging for more information on the couple, and made the startling discovery that Guojun and Silvia were, in fact, the owners of the surrogacy agency that hired her. And then she learned something even more shocking: the couple already had twenty other children, most of them under the age of three, all living together in a ten-thousand-square foot L.A. mansion."

"In a riveting story, published in this week's issue, Ava Kofman unravels the mystery of Guojun and Silvia's strange and troubling project. What begins as a suspected human-trafficking case takes a series of surprising turns, becoming something else entirely. Kofman covers every angle: she traces the couple's complicated histories, interviews Elliott and other surrogates from across the country who carried children for them, uncovers the stunning lack of regulation in the nation's for-profit surrogacy industry, and reveals major lapses in California's child-protective services."

Kayla Elliott, a Texas woman, served as a commercial surrogate for a Los Angeles surrogacy agency for a $45,000 base payment plus monthly expenses and expected close contact with the intended parents, Guojun Xuan and Silvia Zhang. The couple maintained minimal contact, and Silvia arrived hours late to the hospital after Elliott gave birth. Elliott later discovered that Guojun and Silvia owned the agency and already had twenty other children, mostly under three, living together in a large L.A. mansion. The children were removed by the state and the couple briefly jailed. The case reveals weak regulation in the for-profit surrogacy industry and significant lapses in California child-protective services.

Read at The New Yorker