Questions about surrogacy are raised in case of California couple with
house brimming with kids
[July 18, 2025]
By ED WHITE and SAFIYAH RIDDLE
The removal of 21 children from the custody of a Los Angeles-area couple
has put a spotlight on the practice of using surrogates to build a
family. Surrogacy has no federal regulation, leaving it up to states to
set the rules if they choose to allow it.
The kids — 15 at the couple's mansion and six more living elsewhere —
were taken by an LA County child welfare agency in May after the parents
were accused of failing to intervene in the abuse of a baby by a nanny,
police in Arcadia said.
The children range in age from 2 months to 13 years, with most between 1
and 3, police said. The FBI won’t comment but agents are investigating.
Silvia Zhang, 38, and Guojun Xuan, 65, have not responded to emails
seeking comment.
Police believe Zhang gave birth to one or two of the children while the
rest were born by surrogate. Some women who were paid surrogates for the
couple now say they were unaware that the couple was accumulating a
supersize family, raising questions about their intentions.
“What were they going to do with these children?” said Deborah Wald, a
lawyer in San Francisco whose expertise includes surrogacy law.
What is surrogacy?
Surrogacy is an agreement between parties to have a woman become
pregnant, typically through an embryo transfer, and deliver a baby. The
intended parent or parents might struggle with infertility. They also
could be same-sex couples.
There’s no limit on how many children someone can have through
surrogates or any other method, said Wald, who is not involved in the
Arcadia case.
She acknowledged that California is considered a “surrogacy-friendly
state" because it has clear laws around the process.
Both sides are required to have lawyers, and there must be a written,
notarized contract before an embryo transfer, Wald said.
“The legitimate surrogacy community in California is very distressed
when things like this happen,” Wald said of surrogates feeling deceived.
”We’ve worked very hard on legal and ethical standards. It hurts
everyone when something like this happens.”
Matchmaker role
There are businesses that act as matchmakers, connecting surrogates to
people who want to have children. State business records show a company
called Mark Surrogacy Investment LLC had been registered at the Arcadia
address of Zhang and Xuan.
It’s not clear if Zhang and Xuan set up the business solely to find
surrogates for themselves. State records show the company terminated its
business license in June.
Wald said there are no special licensing requirements in California for
businesses that match surrogates with intended parents.
Many questions remain
Wald said there should have been plenty of checks and balances in the
process, noting the role of fertility clinics in handling embryos.
[to top of second column]
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The home of Silvia Zhang and Guojun Xuan is seen on Wednesday, July
16, 2025, in Arcadia, Calif., where a number of children were
removed from the couple's home after a child abuse allegation in
May, according to Arcadia police. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
 “The first place typically is the
matching program that matches the surrogate with an intended parent.
But in this situation the intended parents were the matching
program,” Wald said. “I am not familiar with any other prior case
where that was true.”
Arcadia police said the six children who were not at the couple's
home were found with family friends. The couple's house was “set up
for a school environment,” Lt. Kollin Cieadlo said.
Zhang and Xuan were accused of neglect and arrested in May. Charges
were not formally pursued at that time in order for an abuse
investigation to continue, and detectives now believe there were
other instances of abuse, Cieadlo said.
A 2-month-old infant with a traumatic head injury, allegedly at the
hands of a nanny, remains in a hospital in stable condition, he
said.
Keeping the family together
California law requires child welfare agencies to prioritize placing
children who cannot safely be with their parents in homes with
extended family, and requires siblings to be kept together unless it
would endanger the child to do so, said Leslie Heimov, the executive
director of the Children’s Law Center of California.
The Children’s Law Center has worked with some families with 10 to
12 children, Heimov said. A family with 20 children or more is
“unusual," she added.
It’s more complicated to find foster homes for larger families that
can accommodate all the children’s needs, especially for infants,
Heimov said.
In addition to expenses and limited space, it's hard to give infants
the proper stimulation and care they need if they are in a home with
many other children, she said.
In cases involving many children, the state will sometimes get
creative to make sure that siblings can maintain relationships with
each other, like placing them in the same neighborhood, or placing
them in different but related households, Heimov said.
A case involving over 20 children conceived through surrogacy would
“present some legal questions,” said Heimov. “But it would not
change our advocacy — we want every child we represent to be in a
loving, safe home."
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White reported from Detroit and Riddle from Montgomery, Alabama.
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