Three Taiwanese men are under investigation on suspicion of importing women from Uzbekistan to serve as surrogate mothers.
The three men — a businessman, a doctor and a pharmacist identified only by their last names Shao, Kuo and Lien — are alleged to have brought four Uzbek women to Taiwan since 2007 to serve as surrogate mothers.
Police said Kuo fathered three children by two of the women, Shao fathered a child by another woman while the fourth woman left the country soon after her arrival. Only one of the women is still in the country, police said.
Shao, who operates a factory in Uzbekistan, is married to an Uzbek woman who is not involved in the case, and they have one child, police said.
They said Shao admitted to bringing an Uzbek woman into the country in 2007 after his wife was unable to bear more children. He reportedly paid the woman US$30,000 to serve as a surrogate mother — US$1,000 for each month she was in the country, police said.
They said the woman came to Taiwan under the pretext of studying Chinese and was impregnated with Shao’s sperm through artificial insemination. She left in August 2008 after giving birth to a baby boy who was later adopted by Shao, they said.
Shao’s wife was kept in the dark about the process, police said.
Surrogate motherhood is illegal in this country and doctors who knowingly perform artificial insemination for such a purpose can have their licenses suspended.
Kuo, who was a doctor at a clinic owned by Shao in Keelung’s Cidu (七堵) district, was reportedly quite taken with Shao’s two blonde children and was eager to have one of his own, police said.
However, since Kuo was in the middle of a divorce, he asked a friend, Lien, to engage in a fake marriage with an Uzbek woman and bring her into the country, police said.
That woman bore Kuo a girl in February 2008 via artificial insemination, police said, and is still in the country, using the family name Kuo.
Using a similar ploy, Kuo impregnated another foreign woman and brought her to Taiwan, supposedly to study Chinese, the police said. That woman gave birth to twin boys in March.
In March last year Shao brought in another Uzbek woman to be a surrogate, but during a routine health check the woman was found be HIV-positive and the clinic alerted the Keelung health department, police said.
Shao asked the Uzbek woman surnamed Kuo to pose as the new arrival and go to a Taipei City clinic for another HIV test, police said. The second HIV test was negative and it was the discrepancy between the two tests that drew the attention of health authorities.
The HIV-positive woman had already left the country before the scheme was uncovered, police said.
Shao, Kuo, Lien and others believed to be involved in the case were taken to the Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office on Wednesday for questioning. The three men were released on bail, while the Uzbek woman surnamed Kuo was taken to an immigrant shelter because Lien had thrown her out after the scheme was exposed, police said.
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