A friend of mine, in her late 40s, has just had two babies. Well strictly speaking someone else had them for her. She and her husband hired a young, able-bodied woman from a village in South China to be a surrogate mother, who was sent back to her home after the two baby girls were born early this year.

A wealthy couple in South China's Guangdong province went so far as to commission two surrogate mothers this year and now they have eight babies five by the surrogate mothers.

It's mind-blowing, and the advancements in biomedical technology have brought dramatic upheavals to traditional concepts and values and raised many legal, ethical and social questions.