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Down on the Chinese Baby Farm · Armstrong & Getty One More Thing

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: It's a simple laugh down on the Chinese baby farm.
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: It's one more thing, time to slap the babies. Paul,
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: what the hell, Oh my god, what are you talking about?
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: This is crazy. I remember I brought this story to
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: the show a few months ago, These Chinese baby farms
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: in La.
• 0:30
  Speaker 2: Babies and farms and rows and waterings.
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: It's more a metaphor than that. But so it starts
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: with this. This judge in family Court, Amy Pellman, she's
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: just reviewing routine surrogacy petitions, because when you have a
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: baby via surrogacy, there are forms you fill out that
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: you know, you become the guardian of the child, the
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: parent of the child legally, and the surrogate mother, the
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: birthing lady, gives up the essentially the rights to the
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: child and all. But it's a very very routine thing
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: in courts. But clerks working for this judge noticed the
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: same name again and again and again. This Chinese billionaire
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: was seeking parental rights to at least four unborn children,
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: and they thought, wait a minute, what's going on here.
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: So they did a search on the name and found
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: out he'd already fathered was in the process of fathering
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: at least eight more, all through surrogates. This Chinese billionaire
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: was seeking parental rights to at least four children. Blah
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: blah blah blah blah. He was so, but it's more
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: than a dozen now. So the judge called him in
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: for a confidential hearing summer ago, but he never entered
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: the courtroom. He appeared via video. Speaking through an interpreter.
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: He explained that he hoped to have twenty or so
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: US born children through surrogacy, all boys because they're superior
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: to girls. Well less to say, no, no, it's all
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: IVF okay, Yeah he wants is making all these other
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: one Oh that was a stretch it to the dragon
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: with too bad maybe anyway, Uh, he's breeding this army
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: of US born kids to one day take over his business.
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: Surrogacy is illegal in China, I believe, and so a
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: lot of Chinese people who want to have a child
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: versus via surrogates come to the United States. But a
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: couple of them have jumped to everybody's attention because it's
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: not like they want one or two kids. They're they're
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: literally using US women as like breeding sows. Chinese elites
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: and billionaires are going outside of China where domestic surrogacy
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: is illegal. To quietly have large numbers of US babies.
• 3:00
  Speaker 2: Is not. It's not a compliment. Nobody wants to be
• 3:04
  Speaker 2: called a breeding sow. I don't know.
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: Okay, you tell us we're mansplaining. Oh yeah, I would
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: love to be called a breeding sow. Well, don't nobody
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: will call you that.
• 3:15
  Speaker 3: This whole serviuce thing thing. They make a lot of
• 3:18
  Speaker 3: money the way that do this, even just the whole
• 3:22
  Speaker 3: legal just an America sort of version, you may, yeah,
• 3:25
  Speaker 3: in America they do wow, Like.
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: Chinese billionaires are paying a lot of money.
• 3:31
  Speaker 2: Yeah, dang it didn't now Now now I'm wishing I
• 3:33
  Speaker 2: was a woman, or maybe maybe I should change my sex.
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: So uh yeah, men can give birth. We've learned that
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: over and over again. Go ahead and try so.
• 3:42
  Speaker 2: If you're like a healthy twenty eight year old woman
• 3:45
  Speaker 2: who wants to make your money this way, do you
• 3:46
  Speaker 2: have any idea how much money you could make cranking
• 3:48
  Speaker 2: out a kid every couple of years.
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: I don't think they mentioned it here, but I've seen
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: you can make six figures per baby. Yeah, that's probably
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: the top end. Because, for instance, a thriving mini industry
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: of American surrogacy agencies, law firms, clinic delivery agency, eight
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: delivery agencies, and nanny services. They'll even pick up the
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: newborn from the hospital. They've risen to accommodate the demand,
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: permitting parents to ship their gymnetic material abroad and get
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: a baby delivered back at the cost of up to
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: two hundred thousand dollars per child. That's for the whole shebang.
• 4:29
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I've seen that. Just getting pregnant with the baby
• 4:33
  Speaker 3: and having it you can make anywhere between seventy five
• 4:36
  Speaker 3: and one hundred thousand dollars.
• 4:38
  Speaker 2: And I know two people that have done this. Of course,
• 4:40
  Speaker 2: deciding to have nine months of your life be that
• 4:45
  Speaker 2: and then you know what it does to your body
• 4:48
  Speaker 2: and the recovery and it's no minor deal.
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: Right, But picture that. So this Chinese billionaire there are
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: other ones we're going to feature, but sends his sperms
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: to the United States. You a surrogate is impregnated, she
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: gives birth, the kid gets grabbed by the nanny slash
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: delivery service who delivers the baby slot off. They go, well, yeah,
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: but seriously, what is it? Does that now sound like
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: a breeding operation, do you think? And then they bring
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: you your little piglet that happens to be a human being.
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: Let's see where's this other guy.
• 5:27
  Speaker 2: Seems to run counter to the way we look at
• 5:30
  Speaker 2: human beings. The United States see that as being the problem.
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: Some Chinese parents, inspired by Elon Musk's Fourteen Known Children,
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: pay millions in surrogacy fees to hire women in the
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: US to help them build families of jaw dropping size.
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: That one guy who we mentioned, Zoo Shue is his
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: name's Exu, calls himself China's first father, and is known
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: as China as a vocal critic of feminism on social
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: Media's company said he has more than one hundred children
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: born through urgency in the US. Another wealthy Chinese executive,
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: Wang Hu O Woo Woo Woo, hired US models and
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: others as egg donors to have ten girls. Oh so
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: he's working team female with the aim of one day
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: marrying them off to powerful men. Again. Down on the
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: baby farm.
• 6:22
  Speaker 2: Of enormous size, you meant the number of people, not
• 6:25
  Speaker 2: the individuals.
• 6:28
  Speaker 3: Just giants, all of them.
• 6:30
  Speaker 2: Eighty pound babies four feet long.
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: Ooh, usually large families referring to the number indeed, uh
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: some oh no, we already did that part. Uh. The
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: growing Asian market for you for international fertility services has
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: drawn the attention of American investors, including Peter Thiel, whose
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: family is backed a chain of IVF clinics across Southeast
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: Asia and recently opened a branch in Los Angeles. Where
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: there's demand, there will be a supply. Where was that
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: there was one more thing I wanted to tell you, Eh, whatever, Oh,
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: here it is.
• 7:16
  Speaker 2: Here it is. You're in the midst of pregnancy, Katie,
• 7:19
  Speaker 2: as I'm sure you could attest. It's not like an
• 7:22
  Speaker 2: easy thing to do. It should it should pay a
• 7:24
  Speaker 2: lot before you'd be willing to go through it.
• 7:27
  Speaker 3: Yeah, it's not easy. I do know some people that
• 7:30
  Speaker 3: it has been relatively easy for. And I have a
• 7:32
  Speaker 3: friend that actually says, oh, I loved being pregnant.
• 7:35
  Speaker 1: Where I just look at her like, what she's risking
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: a beating? If that was true for you.
• 7:41
  Speaker 2: I sat next to a woman on a plane one
• 7:43
  Speaker 2: time who told me she had three kids, and she
• 7:45
  Speaker 2: told me the best times I've ever felt my life, Literally,
• 7:49
  Speaker 2: the best I've ever felt was that I was pregnant
• 7:50
  Speaker 2: all three times. Man, you got to keep that to yourself. Yeah,
• 7:54
  Speaker 2: she should only tell your priest and the therapist that story.
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and and and my wife, I know her three
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: prepregnancies were a lot like our three kids, very different
• 8:04
  Speaker 1: from each other. Yeah, So what I was looking for
• 8:07
  Speaker 1: is other Chinese clients, many, many, many of them are
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: seeking more typical numbers of babies. They're high powered executives,
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: lacking the time and inclination to bear their own children.
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: Try the natural way. It's not bad. Older parents are
• 8:19
  Speaker 1: same sex couples. According to people who range these surrocacy deals,
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: all have the wealth to go outside China while maintaining
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: the privacy needed to manage potential logistical, publicity and legal
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: issues back home. And some have the political clout to
• 8:32
  Speaker 1: avoid censure. And the market's grown so sophisticated. As we
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: started to describe earlier, a lot of these guys have
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: had us born children with out ever setting foot in
• 8:44
  Speaker 1: the country. They just do it all by mail, including
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: the kid. Obviously, the kid is brought back, yeah, personally
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: to China. But it's just unbelievable. Yeah on savory that is.
• 8:58
  Speaker 2: Yeah, Yeah, I just know I take parenthood so seriously.
• 9:03
  Speaker 2: I just can't imagine having bunches and bunches of kids
• 9:06
  Speaker 2: out there with my DNA, and I just don't think
• 9:09
  Speaker 2: much about what becomes of them.
• 9:11
  Speaker 3: I think about the families that are going through IVF
• 9:13
  Speaker 3: that just pray and pray for one right.
• 9:17
  Speaker 1: Right, right. Several of this Hue Bows kids were being
• 9:22
  Speaker 1: raised by nannies in nearby Irvine as they awaited paperwork
• 9:25
  Speaker 1: to travel to China. He hasn't met them, he told
• 9:28
  Speaker 1: the judge, because work had been busy. Oh, I'm telling
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: you it's a puppy mill, but humans, China.
• 9:40
  Speaker 3: No value for human life at all, whatsoever?
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: Trueette, Well, I don't know. The guy wants a hundred kids.
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: He's got to puts some value on it.
• 9:51
  Speaker 2: Well, I guess that's it.
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: Don't trust China. Where was that? Michael Lazy Laz