Fertility Inc.: When the Surrogate Gets Left With the Bill

生育公司:当代孕母亲面临账单时

The Journal.

2026-03-07

30 分钟
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Reproductive technology is a modern miracle. It's made it possible for millions of people to become parents who might otherwise not have been able to. But growing demand has spawned a multibillion-dollar industry that’s largely unregulated in the U.S.  In our first episode looking at the wild west of the fertility industry, Ryan Knutson speaks with a three-time surrogate who ended up in a big legal battle. Nia Trent-Wilson was left with hundreds of thousands of dollars in medical debt after a family didn’t pay up after delivery. WSJ’s Katherine Long reports on how the industry fosters a dramatic power imbalance between surrogates and intended parents. Further Listening: - The Mystery of the Mansion Filled With Surrogate Children - America’s Maternal Health Crisis Sign up for WSJ’s free What’s News newsletter. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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  • Over 10,000 times a year, someone in America says yes to carrying a child that isn't theirs.

  • Nia Trent Wilson was one of them.

  • Every time I tell somebody my story, like,

  • I guess people are taken aback because it's not every day that you meet a surrogate.

  • Nia lives in Houston and has her own 14-year-old son.

  • She's also been a surrogate three times.

  • The first experience was nothing short of amazing.

  • The mom and the dad were at all of the appointments, and then I delivered the baby.

  • They named her after me.

  • Her middle name is my name.

  • What Nia remembers most from that time was how well the intended parents treated her.

  • The delivery had been a complicated C-section.

  • and the parents supported her during her recovery.

  • They headed to where they paid out of pocket for me to have my own hotel slash recovery room with my own nurse,

  • my own maid, my own chef, my own everything.

  • And I'm just like, what is going on here?

  • They really wanted to take care of you, it sounds like.

  • Over the top, I've never had, like, I was not allowed to move.

  • Like, it was...

  • Almost unheard of.