TWO Hong Kong men were caught, in two separate cases, by Shenzhen Customs for allegedly carrying 173 tubes of blood samples from expectant mothers to get gender tests in Hong Kong.

    On Monday, customs officers at Luohu Checkpoint found a large amount of tubes inside a shopping bag of an outbound traveler through the X-ray machine. The tubes, two or three bundled together with labels and names, contained the blood of expectant mothers. Customs officers also found some paper certificates and ultrasound tests authorizing medical service agencies in Hong Kong to do DNA and gender tests.

    Earlier on Feb. 9, Luohu Customs caught another Hong Kong man who was transporting a total of 73 tubes of blood samples in his pockets for gender tests in Hong Kong. It is illegal on the mainland to have prenatal gender tests for nonmedical purposes.

    A regulation jointly issued by the national health authority and 13 other agencies also bans transporting blood samples overseas for gender tests. However, it is easy for expectant mothers on the mainland to find “underground” medical service agencies that will help them send blood samples to Hong Kong for testing.

    In another development, employees with the city’s inspection and quarantine bureau recently seized a large amount of Rho(D) immune globulin — a medication used to prevent Rh isoimmunization in mothers who are Rh negative and to treat hemolytic disease in newborns — from an inbound traveler recently.

    The 54 injection-bottles, each with a dose of 300ug, were neatly packaged, but without any Chinese-language explanations. They were kept in insulated bags with some ice. The traveler claimed to have bought them at Hong Kong pharmacies for mainland users. (Han Ximin)