“You were an Embryonic Dragon, Temporarily Nurtured in the Belly of a Bitch”. Surrogacy in China: Tradition, Ideology, Gender, and the Law

On 27th December 2015 the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress of the People’s Republic of China passed the amendments to the “Law of the People's Republic of China on Population and Family Planning”, removing the prohibition of “any form of surrogacy” contained, instead, in previous NPC’s drafts. The national legislator’s decision reflects the tendency recently showed by some People’s courts and shows the growing attention dedicated by the Chinese leadership to this reproductive technology that may otentially increase satisfaction “within the people” and improve social stability. In this paper, I will analyse Chinese legislation, jurisprudence and Courts’ decisions on the matter using the comparative method to better understand the complex relationship among legal transplants, tradition, ideology and gender issues in a socialist market economy.