The story of the birth of a child four years after the death of the parents sounds a bit bizarre and strange, and if it were in ancient times when science and technology were not developed, it might be a story of ghosts, snakes, and gods.
But it's a real thing, and why is the child born 4 years after the death of the parents? What happened to this newborn child?
Happy life
One day in 2012, a wedding was being held in a people's home in Yixing City, Jiangsu, the bride was called Liu Xi, and the groom was named Shen Jie, both of whom were the only sons in the family.
Liu Xi is a kindergarten teacher and Shen Jie is a police officer.
At the wedding, Shen Jie promised Liu Xi that he would take care of their home with his life. Liu Xi happily said to Shen Nan: "Give birth to a bunch of babies, and take the babies every day to bring chickens and dogs to jump."
After marriage, the two are inseparable and sweetly run a small family, planning to wait for the birth of a bunch of babies.
But waiting left and right, Liu Xi's stomach never moved.
After the couple discussed, they went to the hospital for an examination, and the result of the examination was that Liu Xi was affected by her physique and was not easy to conceive.
After the parents of both sides found out about this, they went to the doctor everywhere, and as long as they found out where there was a good prescription, they would try to get it and give it a try.
As a result, Liu Xi looked at Yixing's famous traditional Chinese medicine and took hundreds of prescriptions, but his stomach still did not move.
In the dead of night, she often looked at her sleeping husband beside her, touched her belly over and over again and asked herself, "Is there really no way?" I really can't be a mother in this life, and Shen Jie really can't be a father?"
Fortunately, by chance, Liu Xi saw an advertisement for IVF, and an idea germinated in his heart.
Twists and turns to find a child
Like grasping a life-saving straw, she checked Baidu, asked friends, and finally found out that Nanjing Drum Tower Hospital is quite authoritative in this regard. However, the whole process of IVF is particularly sinful, and it is necessary to take hormone injections and hormone medicines, which may cause abdominal distension and ascites, which will affect physical health.
In fact, the physical suffering is not worth mentioning, and it is the psychological suffering that makes people suffer greatly. Doing IVF not only costs a lot of money, but also no hospital dares to succeed, and the whole process of implementation and waiting is physically and mentally exhausting.
But when I think of having children, no matter how much suffering I suffer, how tired I am, it is worth it for Liu Xi.
At the beginning of 2013, 32-year-old Shen Jie accompanied his wife to the Reproductive Medicine Center of Nanjing Drum Tower Hospital.
The doctor gave Liu Xi a series of examinations and suggested that she adjust her body to the best condition for half a year before starting the operation.
After Liu Xi went home, according to the doctor's instructions, formulated a strict diet and rest plan, and carefully recuperated his body, Shen Nan went home to accompany his wife as soon as he got off work, cooked food for his wife according to his taste, and accompanied his wife for a walk in the community at night, both of them were ready to wait for the crystallization of love to come with confidence.
Three months later, the couple returned to the hospital for a follow-up examination, and the doctor told him that the eggs could be retrieved.
The doctor took out 13 egg cells from Liu Xi's uterus, and after culture, only 4 of them met the criteria for IVF.
After receiving the message, Liu Xi jumped up with joy, as long as one of them could successfully implant and grow, she would be able to become a mother.
On March 20, 2013, Liu Xi came to the hospital for examination, and all the physical indicators met the transplant standards, and the hospital told her that the transplant was scheduled for five days later, that is, on March 25, 2013.
March 20th is really a day of double happiness, it is Liu Xi's mother's birthday that day, the little couple accompanied their mother to celebrate her birthday, it was already nine o'clock in the evening, they rushed back in a hurry, to tell Shen Nan's parents the good news.
Maybe the husband and wife were too excited, maybe it was the jealousy of God, just when their family was immersed in happy times, at 11 o'clock that night, a phone call lifted the two families from their warm lives and threw them into the cold cellar.
Embryonic battles
The call was from the traffic police and asked them to go to the hospital to claim the person. When the four elderly people rushed to the hospital, the doctor told them that the two young men had suffered a very serious car accident, and the woman was seriously injured and could not recover, and was doing his best to save the man, and five days later, the man also died. These two young people are Shen Jie and Liu Xi.
Since it was late at night at the time of the incident, there was no monitoring equipment on the road section of the incident, and there were no witnesses, the cause of the accident is still unknown.
In his old age, when he should have enjoyed the joy of family, he lost his only son, and the old people washed their faces with tears all day long, immersed in the grief of losing their son.
Relatives and friends also attended the funeral with tears in their eyes, feeling sorry for the death of the young couple and full of worries about the future lives of the four elderly people.
The old people were in deep pain for a long time, and a relative's conversation reminded them that the two children had left, but the four embryos left in the hospital were the hope of continuing the incense.
The four elderly people immediately contacted Nanjing Drum Tower Hospital to apply for the right to dispose of the embryos. The hospital said that it was deeply sympathetic to the plight of the elderly, but that the elderly's application for embryo disposal rights "does not comply with the relevant regulations on human assisted reproduction".
What the hospital said is not without reason. According to the relevant regulations, only the parents have the right to supervise and manage the specific embryos.
Seeing that the negotiation could not be achieved, the four elderly people sued the Drum Tower Hospital to the court.
The old people believe that the embryo belongs to the legal property of Shen Jie and Liu Xi, and the embryo contains the genetic information of their family, and no one in this world has more supervision and disposal rights than them.
His lawyer believes that whether it is the Civil Code, the Inheritance Law or the General Principles of the Civil Law, all the laws regulating civil legal acts do not say that fertilized embryos are not inheritable. The Drum Tower Hospital was supposed to be returned to any of the families of the four elderly people.
The hospital believes that according to the "Measures for the Administration of Human Assisted Reproductive Technology" and other regulations, embryos cannot be donated or transferred.
The court held that fertilized embryos have the potential to develop into life and cannot be inherited and donated. Mr. and Mrs. Shen Jie have died, and IVF surgery cannot be performed. Ask the court to dismiss the old man's claim.
Dissatisfied, the four elderly people appealed to the Wuxi Intermediate People's Court.
After investigation, the court held that Shen Jie and his wife died unexpectedly and that the hospital could not unilaterally dispose of the embryos involved in the case in accordance with the contract; the embryos contained the genetic information of the two families, and the parents of both parties were the people closest to the bioethics of the embryos, so the right to supervise and dispose of the embryos should be most closely inclined to the interests of Hengyou. The court awarded the right to dispose of the embryo and the right to supervise it to the four elderly people, but required the four elderly people not to violate public order and good customs and harm the interests of others.
But when Shen Xingnan went to the Drum Tower Hospital with the court's decision, thinking that he could take over the embryo smoothly this time, another new problem appeared.
The hospital requires a certificate of acceptance from a hospital with the same qualifications to hand over the embryos.
According to the Measures for the Administration of Human Assisted Reproductive Technology issued by the Ministry of Health in 2001, "medical institutions and medical personnel shall not implement any form of surrogate child technology".
This means that these 4 embryos are a hot potato, and no hospital in China dares to take over. Although the four old men won the lawsuit, the four embryos may have reached a dead end.
Fortunately, God does not close the doors and windows, but closes this door and leaves the window.
It's a long way to go
From April to the end of December 2015, 12 departments, including the National Health and Family Planning Commission, jointly formulated a plan to carry out a nationwide campaign to crack down on the use of the womb to give birth.
It is not feasible for relatives to have children on their own, and it is not feasible for relatives to volunteer to give birth. In desperation, they set their sights abroad.
Everyone knows that when the old people get the embryo, they must pass it on. Since Shen Xingnan's embryo battle with the hospital became known to the outside world, he has been constantly receiving "visits" from large and small institutions that borrow uterus to give birth, claiming that they can go to the United States, Ukraine, Russia, and some Southeast Asian countries to carry out. Some organizations were more thoughtful and used the opportunity to help Shen Xingnan raise related expenses.
Shen Xingnan found that these institutions either wanted to deceive him or use this opportunity to deceive others, and looking for an honest and trustworthy agency made Shen Xingnan very troubled.
At the beginning of 2016, Shen Xingnan met the person he was looking for in a teahouse in Shanghai, Liu Baojun, the head of an agency that borrowed the womb to give birth to children. Liu claims to be the first institution in China to carry out this work, and he has brought many successful cases.
In the course of the conversation, Shen Xingnan talked with Liu for more than three hours, from whether he could get a certificate to receive embryos from the hospital, how to ensure the liquid nitrogen environment, how to thaw embryos, and how to carry out transfer operations. Liu Baojun also looked at the relevant hospital documents and materials of the 4 fertilized embryos, and felt that the quality of the embryos, the division and freezing of the embryos were relatively good, and the success rate was relatively large.
After negotiation, Liu Baojun and the four Shen Xingnan reached an agreement that in addition to the cost of 200,000 yuan for surrogacy, an additional 100,000 yuan of living expenses will be paid to the surrogate mother, and if it is unsuccessful, no fee will be charged.
The 4 fertilized eggs are the blood left by the children, the only spiritual sustenance of the old people in their later years, and the continuation of the incense of the two families.
In the end, it was decided that Shen Jie's father, Shen Xinnan, would go to the hospital in Laos to issue a certificate.
Accompanied by Liu Baojun, Shen Xingnan rushed to Laos to get the certificate of consent to accept, and rushed back to Nanjing.
The reason why Laos was chosen is because Thailand, Vietnam and other southeastern countries issued laws prohibiting commercial surrogation in October 2016, and Laos, which has not issued a relevant ban, has naturally become the new favorite. But shortly after they completed their surrogacy, Laos also issued a decree prohibiting the commercial activity.
On December 20, 2016, four elderly people, accompanied by Liu Baojun and three staff members of the enforcement division of the Yixing Court, went to the Drum Tower Hospital to obtain the fertilized embryos of their children.
I got the embryos, but how to send them to the hospital in Laos is another problem.
Liu Baojun found the airline, but when the airline knew that it wanted to check in embryos, it refused one by one.
They found the shipping company again, and the company replied that they had to provide a power of attorney from the parents of the embryo, a medical report, etc., before they could transport it, but apparently these were not possible at all.
In the end, Shen Xingnan and several family members decided to take the form of self-driving to personally send the liquid nitrogen tank containing 4 embryos to Laos through Vietnam.
At the beginning of January 2017, Shen Xingnan, accompanied by two relatives and friends, set off from Yixing and exported through Yunnan to deliver liquid nitrogen tanks containing four embryos to Laos.
In Laos, Shen Xingnan selected a 27-year-old woman named "Kunda" among many surrogate mothers, Kunda had a history of marriage and a good uterus. She reached an agreement with Liu Baojun to give up custody of the child.
After a series of examinations and other preparations, the doctor selected the best 2 fertilized embryos and transferred them into Kunda's uterus, and fortunately, one was successfully implanted. After that, under the arrangement of Liu Baojun's institution, Kunda raised the fetus with peace of mind, and would undergo a pregnancy test, and the development of the fetus was reported by Liu Baojun to the four elderly people on time.
And the four elderly people in China were not idle for a moment, they were busy before and after, preparing for the return of their children to China, household registration and other things.
In November 2017, when Kunda was about to give birth, Liu Baojun applied for a tourist visa for Kunda to China and took her to Guangzhou to take care of her.
On December 9, the child was born in Guangzhou, and the four elderly people finally looked forward to their grandchildren.
Grandmother Hu Xingxian named him "Tiantian", which means that she hopes that his life will be smooth sailing and life will be sweet and sweet.
Next, there is the issue of the child's nationality determination.
Half a month after the birth of the child, the old people took the child to Nanjing for a paternity test, and the results proved that Tian Tian was the son of Shen Jie and Liu Xi, the child was born in China, the biological parents are Chinese, and the child is Chinese nationality.
After being discharged from the hospital, Tian Tian lived in her grandfather Shen Xingnan's house, and in order to take care of him, the Shen family also hired a nanny.
On March 18, 2018, Tian Tian was born 100 days old. Shen Xinnan only set up ten tables in his yard, and invited Hu Xingxian and his wife and some relatives who were closer, so that they could witness Tiantian's growth.
At this point, the 4 years of running finally came to fruition, everything was settled, the old people lost a long breath, and the country's first frozen embryo inheritance case came to an end in love and law.
Write at the end
This piece has attracted widespread attention on the Internet.
Some people think that Tiantian is the crystallization of the love of their parents, the continuation and hope of the family affection and bloodline of the two pairs of lost families, and the emotional sustenance of the parents to Shen Jie and Liu Xi.
Some people also think that the 4 old people are quite selfish in this move, and Tian Tian was born as an orphan without a father and mother, which is quite cruel to the child.
But no matter what, Tian Tian is now a lively and lovely child, the society should give him warm care and less disturb him, in order to let him grow up strongly, and in order not to expose the scars on the hearts of the elderly, so that the injured hearts of the old people will gradually smooth out under Tian Tian's comfort.