A mother in China whose daughter was a test-tube baby saw a photo of an identical girl online and feared her stored embryos had been misused. - Photo: SCMP composite/Shutterstock/Douyin
BEIJING: A mother in China who claimed that a missing girl looked uncannily like her own test-tube daughter suspected her stored embryos might have been misused.
On August 13, the mother surnamed Wang, who lives in Shanghai, saw a video online in which a blogger had found a lost little girl at a railway station and was trying to locate her parents.
A concerned friend of Wang’s had sent the video to her after noticing the striking resemblance between the girl and Wang’s daughter who was born through in vitro fertilisation (IVF).
“My friend asked if I had lost my child. It completely stunned me,” Wang told Chinese Business View.
“This little girl really looks like my daughter, even her expressions are the same,” she said.
Given that her daughter was born through IVF and additional embryos were stored at the hospital for a potential second child, Wang thought there might have been an error or that her embryos had been misused.
Wang underwent the IVF procedure in May 2018 at a hospital in Shanghai, spending about 70,000 yuan (US$8,000) to 80,000 yuan on procedures, including multiple egg retrieval and embryo implantation.
"When doing IVF, they do not just retrieve one egg.
"There could have been a mistake where my child was given to someone else, or perhaps the doctor made an error," Wang said.
“We do not dare accuse the hospital of wrongdoing without evidence, but if there was a violation, we need to address it.”
Wang said she wanted to contact the girl’s family for a DNA test to see if there was a biological connection.
However, her attempt to reach the family through the blogger who posted the video was not possible because contact details had not been saved.
Wang then made a public video appeal in a bid to contact the girl’s family.
“I just want to find this family to confirm the situation. If the resemblance is purely coincidental, we could even become friends. We have no ill intentions,” Wang said.
“Although we do not have the right to demand anything, we would still like an answer.”
Some netizens in China agreed on the similarity in their appearance but many dismissed her concerns as “conspiracy theories.”
“It’s just that the kids look alike. Why bother finding the family? What is she trying to prove?” said one person.
“Isn’t it possible that the other girl was naturally born, and it’s just a coincidence that they look alike?” asked another.
“She is just making trouble. If there is a problem, she should go to the hospital, not bother the other family. This should be dealt with privately, not posted online,” a third person said.
On August 18, the parents of the missing girl clarified online that their daughter, who is now two and half years old, was born naturally, and they had reported the issue to the police in Shanghai.
Wang later deleted the video she had posted in search of the family.
According to data from the National Health Commission released in June 2024, about 300,000 babies are born annually through IVF, representing 2 per cent of all newborns in the country.
Access to the assisted reproductive technology is exclusively for heterosexual married couples experiencing fertility issues, and is unavailable to unmarried couples. - South China Morning Post
