In a story that seems straight out of “Star Wars: The Clone Wars,” a Chinese billionaire has allegedly fathered more than 100 U.S.-born children via surrogacy. 

According to reporting from the Wall Street Journal, Xu Bo, a Chinese videogame executive, says he hopes to have at least 20 children—boys, because they’re superior to girls—born through surrogacy in the U.S. His goal? For them to one day take over his business. 

At least eight of Xu’s surrogacy requests had been approved in family court before a judge finally called him in for a hearing on one of his requests.  

After listening to Xu describe his plan, the judge denied his request to father even more children in the U.S.—but such a rejection is not normal. The U.S. surrogacy industry is largely unregulated, and surrogacy requests from intended parents are almost always approved. 

That Wild West landscape has created a booming industry in which people from other countries can “order” dozens or even hundreds of U.S.-born children. In some instances, prospective parents don’t even have to come to the U.S. If they’re willing to pay the price—up to $225,000 per baby—they can simply mail their genetic material to the U.S. and receive a child in return. 

That “made-to-order” culture automatically lends itself to abuse by those seeking to turn a profit. Just look at the surrogacy industry. For each child born, surrogacy agencies typically receive a $35,000-$50,000 check.

READ: JoJo Siwa’s Self-Serving Surrogacy: ‘Fertilize Three Eggs and Have Three Surrogates’ 

Ultimately, those who suffer the most from the consumer culture surrogacy creates are the children.  

In Xu’s case, several of his children had already been born at the time of his new request. Those children were being raised in the U.S. by nannies when a judge finally told him enough was enough.  

In another case, a different Chinese billionaire purchased dozens of eggs from models in the hopes of fathering beautiful girls he could marry off to expand his empire. 

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But there are wider implications beyond just creating children. 

The desire for made-to-order children that surrogacy promotes prompts the question: What happens when the baby doesn’t turn out as ordered? What if a boy arrives instead of a girl? What if the baby has brown eyes instead of blue? If babies are a commodity, as surrogacy suggests, then the natural solution is to discard the commodity and start over from scratch. 

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There are countless stories of prospective parents urging surrogates to abort preborn babies after finding out about birth defects. In one case, parents kept one twin and abandoned the other after the baby was born with Down syndrome. In another case, a woman cancelled her surrogacy arrangement midway through the surrogate’s pregnancy after the prospective parents decided to divorce. 

Children aren’t items to be bought, sold, and discarded at will. They’re precious gifts whose lives hold inherent value and dignity. Chinese nationals shouldn’t be able to buy hundreds of U.S. babies to use for their purposes—and sadly, that’s just the tip of the iceberg. 

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