Recently, "octuplets" were born to a couple in Guangzhou, Guangdong province, but local authorities said that since five of the children were given birth by two surrogate mothers, the couple would be heavily fined for the "extra births". The incident exposes the problem of illegal surrogacy and lack of supervision, says an article in Guangzhou Daily. Excerpts:

The penalty imposed on the Guangzhou couple is just social compensation fee for the five "extra births" and fails to penalize them for the abuse of artificial reproductive technology. The progress made in artificial reproduction technology has helped many couples become parents, but its commercial application has also created ethical and legal problems.

Surrogacy is illegal in China, and doctors and medical institutes providing couples in artificial insemination and "hiring" of surrogate mothers to bear them children can be fined up to 30,000 yuan ($4,771) aside from receiving administrative punishment.

But since the name of the hospital where the "octuplets" were born is still unknown, the public has been left wondering whether supervisory authorities will be able to punish the lawbreakers if the parents do not reveal the details of the case.

The punitive process should not stop at just imposing a fine, no matter how heavy it is, on the couple. Instead, it should also punish the doctors, medical institute and other parties that provided illegal help so the couple to become parents of eight children.

Apart from exposing how the rich circumvent China's family planning policy, the incident reflects the poor supervision of artificial reproduction laws.

Many websites providing "surrogate motherhood" have popped up in recent times and openly advertise their conditions and prices on the Internet. In more ways than one, the 2003 law that bans surrogacy lags behind the times and needs to be urgently updated.