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Mina Kim: Welcome to Forum. I’m Mina Kim. California is better than most states when it comes to protections for surrogates, but a shocking recent incident is revealing the need for improvement.
Last May, police showed up at the home of a wealthy Los Angeles couple and found 15 children inside — most born to different surrogate mothers. Authorities were conducting a welfare check after one of the children was hospitalized with bleeding in the brain. The New Yorker investigative reporter Ava Kofman has looked into why the children were there, what the surrogates knew, and whether broader protections or regulations are needed — for surrogates, the children they carry, and intended parents.
Have you been — or used — a surrogate? What was your experience?
Ava Kofman is a Los Angeles–based staff writer for The New Yorker. Her recent piece is called “The Babies Kept in a Mysterious Los Angeles Mansion.” Ava, welcome to Forum.
Ava Kofman: Thanks so much for having me.
Mina Kim: You first began reporting this story by talking with surrogate Kayla Elliott from Texas. Tell us about her.
Ava Kofman: Kayla Elliott was around 26 when she started what’s known in the fertility industry as a “journey.” She had four children of her own and felt her family was complete, but she was interested in helping another family build the life she had. She realized it could be a win-win: she could earn money for her family while helping strangers start theirs.
She posted about herself on Facebook and heard from a California agency. Kayla is based in Corpus Christi, Texas, and was contacted by an agency called Mark Surrogacy. From there, she was matched fairly quickly with what are known as the “intended parents.”
She didn’t realize at the time — since it was her first journey — that this quick match was unusual. Typically, there’s more of a vetting and matching process. That might have been a red flag to someone more experienced. But she was excited. She didn’t know much about the parents and tried to communicate with them, but didn’t hear much back. That was the beginning of her journey.
Mina Kim: She was surprised by the lack of communication, right? Especially because, initially, what she’d learned made them seem like a good fit — a family with one daughter who wanted a sibling.
Ava Kofman: Exactly. On paper, they said they wanted to be as close as possible. Kayla wasn’t looking for just a financial transaction; she hoped for an emotional connection. Surrogacy is intimate labor — you’re helping bring someone else’s child into the world — and she was excited about that.
Mina Kim: About halfway through her pregnancy, she learned she wasn’t the only surrogate carrying a child for this L.A. couple. What happened?
Ava Kofman: She was told through someone on Facebook that the couple already had 13 children.
Mina Kim: Wow. What did she do?
Ava Kofman: She contacted the agency and was quite surprised. She also spoke with fertility attorneys who gave her more information. She thought it was strange. But she was already four and a half months pregnant at that point and was reassured: yes, they hadn’t told her, but they simply wanted a big family.
Others told her it might seem unusual, but not necessarily shady. So she quieted her anxieties. It wasn’t until two months after she gave birth — in March of last year — that she learned there weren’t just 13 children, but more than 20. She wasn’t even sure exactly how many.
At that point, she began to worry that this might be about more than building a large family — perhaps something far more troubling, even human trafficking.
Mina Kim: It clearly didn’t sit right with her. She learned more through an L.A. welfare agency. And this all came to light because of a hospitalized child, correct?
Ava Kofman: Yes. A baby named Walter, who had been born just weeks before Kayla delivered her “suro-baby,” was taken to a Los Angeles hospital with bleeding in his brain and behind his eyes. He was vomiting and having seizures — symptoms consistent with possible child abuse.
That raised alarms for hospital social workers, who contacted police. When officers arrived at the Arcadia home — a wealthy city in L.A. County — they discovered not just one infant, but many children inside. Contrary to what Walter’s hospital chart suggested, he had numerous siblings. Most of the children were under three years old, many with their heads shaved. It was an extremely crowded and overwhelming household — biologically impossible to have conceived that many children naturally in such a short span of time.
Mina Kim: You report that the couple had extensive surveillance cameras inside the home — apparently to monitor nannies and staff. Police reviewed that footage before taking the children into custody. What did they see?
Ava Kofman: Initially, when police arrived, they saw classrooms set up inside and didn’t immediately observe visible signs of abuse. But after reviewing the surveillance footage — recorded by the parents themselves — they saw what appeared to be children receiving beatings, spankings, and being struck with objects like shoes and sticks.
They also saw footage suggesting that Walter, who they’d been told had fallen off a bed, had in fact been hit multiple times in the face and head. After seeing this, police took the children into custody. As authorities examined the children more closely, they observed signs consistent with severe neglect.
Mina Kim: The couple — Guojun Xuan and Silvia Zhang — were arrested but not charged. Even amid all of this, they were still having children through surrogates?
Ava Kofman: Yes, and that’s part of what made the story so shocking. The couple was arrested and released, and they have not been charged. A dependency court case was opened regarding the custody of the children they already had.
Meanwhile, several women were still pregnant for them. These surrogates learned that the couple they were carrying for was under investigation by police, the FBI, and juvenile dependency court. They had entered into surrogacy intending to hand the babies over to loving parents. They hadn’t planned to raise these children themselves. But understandably, they began to worry about how to protect the children they were carrying.
Mina Kim: Based on your reporting, how unusual is a case like this?
Ava Kofman: It’s incredibly unusual to have this many children in one household. And what was allegedly happening inside the home appears highly unusual as well.
However, there’s nothing legally preventing someone from having as many children as they want through surrogacy or assisted reproduction. In fact, recent reporting in The Wall Street Journal has documented cases of individuals having upwards of 100 children, in part through surrogates. In that context, this might even be considered a smaller-scale operation.
Mina Kim: What struck you about what this Arcadia couple said publicly — in Chinese-language media, for example — about their motivations?
Ava Kofman: They said they simply wanted a big family. They wanted many children who could grow up, succeed, and carry on the family bloodline and legacy.
It does appear to reflect a broader trend among some wealthy individuals — like Elon Musk — who’ve spoken openly about wanting to expand their gene pool and legacy. In this case, though, the method and the impact on the children raise serious concerns.
Mina Kim: After the break, we’ll continue this conversation with Ava Kofman about the surrogacy agency involved and the broader commercial surrogacy industry.
Listeners, what’s your reaction? Have you been a surrogate in California or worked with one? What questions do you have about commercial surrogacy? Email us at forum@kqed.org or call 866-733-6786.
