A Chinese man hired a Florida surrogate, then didn’t pick up his kids because of visas issues, sparking a custody battle that could upend the lucrative, largely unregulated industry. Emi Nietfeld spent more than a year reporting this rollercoaster of a feature. One particularly harrowing turn involves the father hiring people to retrieve the babies for him: > As the men continued knocking on her door, Simpson’s phone convulsed with notifications.
Zhou messaged her nonstop. And you will be arrested immediately,” he warned. Then came pleas—or were they threats?
Over and over, he’d tried to explain his predicament to Simpson. He was still waiting for his visa interview; without her help, he couldn’t get his kids home. Running out of money and options, he’d hired the handlers as a last resort.
Now, as his calls and messages went ignored, he feared she’d fallen in love with his children and would never let them go. Ava Kofman | The New Yorker | February 9, 2026 | 12,128 words “A wealthy couple obtained dozens of children through surrogates. Did they want a family, or something else?” “When her son died in utero, a venture capitalist went to extremes to punish her surrogate.” Kristina Kasparian | Electric Literature | December 19, 2024 | 6,131 words “By choosing surrogacy, I felt I outsourced the very essence of what makes a woman worthy.” Tagged: Emi Nietfeld,fertility,Florida,health,law,New York,New York magazine,parenting,pregnancy,surrogacy,The Cut .
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