TWO employees of an agency that arranged for surrogate pregnancies in Guangdong Province were sentenced to prison after a woman was injured in an illegal egg-retrieval procedure, the China Daily reported.

The case marked the first time in the province that employees of such an agency have been held criminally liable. Surrogacy is banned in China.

Health authorities have been fighting the practice to ensure people have access to safe, regulated and effective assisted reproductive technologies, according to the National Health and Family Planning Commission.

The employees, who were identified only by their surnames — Deng and Lai — worked at Beier Qiyuan Technology Co. They were sentenced to one year and 10 months, respectively, by a court in Guangzhou and ordered to pay fines of 5,000 yuan (US$740) and 3,000 yuan for illegally practicing medicine.

The sentences were handed down in April, but the provincial health and family planning commission only provided details of the case Monday.

Deng was accused of arranging for the woman surnamed Liang, 18, to have her eggs retrieved at a clinic Oct. 6. Liang became acquainted with Deng and Lai in June last year through a friend and agreed to sell her eggs for 15,000 yuan, according to the commission.

For more than 10 days before the surgery, Deng and Lai accompanied Liang to physical checkups where she received drugs that facilitate ovulation, the commission said.

Liang felt serious discomfort and fell into a state of shock Oct. 9. She was sent to Nanfang Hospital for treatment. Judicial authorities certified that she had a damaged ovary and needed surgery.

Surrogacy is usually practiced in secret, and those involved, including agents, clinics and the surrogate mothers, are located in different places in a highly organized network, according to the commission.

With the adoption of the universal second-child policy, the number of women who need assisted reproductive technologies is increasing, according to hospitals and doctors.

Wang Aiming, a professor of assisted reproductive medicine at Navy General Hospital in Beijing, suggested allowing surrogacy in a few certified medical institutes in China to meet demand while preventing risks like dangerous medical practices.

(SD-Agencies)