Eight taken into custody after Wuhan cracks down on alleged illegal assisted reproduction lab
Photo of the alleged illegal assisted reproduction laboratory in Wuhan, Central China's Hubei Province. (Photo: Screenshot from website)
A site allegedly operating as an illegal underground assisted reproduction laboratory in Wuhan, Central China's Hubei Province, has been sealed off by authorities, with eight people taken into police custody, local health authorities reported on Tuesday.
The Wuhan Municipal Health Commission said in a report on its official website that it had launched an immediate joint investigation with police and other departments after netizens on online platforms on Monday reported the existence of an alleged illegal assisted reproduction laboratory in Wuhu subdistrict in Wuhan.
According to Nanfang Daily, a netizen posted on Weibo on Monday about an assisted surrogacy agency in Wuhan that he had reported to authorities, alleging that the agency had set up an operating room and laboratory for surrogacy procedures at the site. An insider reportedly described it as the largest surrogacy agency operating room in Central China.
The netizen told Nanfang Daily on Tuesday that when he arrived at the site, he saw records of recent procedures in a logbook, including entries for September 1, 3 and 6. "There was no one at the site when we went there yesterday, but the machines and other equipment inside were all operating normally, and the logbook showed records of recent procedures," he said.
The netizen said he first obtained information about the agency last year and had been tracking and investigating it for nearly a year. "The location of the agency this time was different from the places we had encountered before. It was a place we could observe and monitor, so I chose to report it and let the relevant authorities verify the situation," Nanfang Daily quoted him as saying.
The site involved has been sealed off, while people allegedly connected to the case have been taken into police custody in accordance with the law, the commission said.
Authorities are continuing to investigate and gather evidence and will deal with those responsible strictly in accordance with relevant laws and regulations, while cracking down on illegal and criminal activities, according to the statement.
The case came just three months after authorities in Hangzhou, East China's Zhejiang Province, reported another case involving the suspected illegal use of human assisted reproductive technologies. Three suspects were detained in accordance with the law, and the case remains under further investigation, CCTV News reported.
Following the incident, the Hangzhou Municipal Health Commission launched a special campaign to crack down on the illegal use of human assisted reproductive technologies, conducting citywide inspections with a focus on unlicensed operations, illegal transactions, irregular business practices and the illegal sale and operation of drugs and medical devices, local media reported.