BEIJING: Rich adults in south China’s Shenzhen city hiring wet nurses to drink breast milk has provoked disgust and outrage over the Chinese internet with thousands of micro blog users lashing out at this “latest game” of people who came to wealth overnight. The wet nurses are provided by an agency, which scouts for poor women who have recently given birth and would be happy with some financial support. The new mothers offer their services for a few days to weeks in a month with prices varying from $2,000 to $4,000.

“Adults (clients) can drink it directly through breastfeeding, or they can always drink it from a breast pump if they feel embarrassed,” Lin Jun, owner of a wet nurse supplying agency, Xinxinyu, was quoted in the local media as saying.

Some Chinese believe that human breast milk has some special nutritional qualities that are good for health, particularly for those who have undergone surgeries. Many Chinese web users are saying it is not just unethical but also shows the arrogance and neglect of women by the country’s wealthy.

“This adds to China’s problem of treating women as consumer goods and the moral degradation of China’s rich,” wrote Cao Baoyin, a writer and regular commentator in Chinese media, on his blog.

Reports in the media had pushed the local government in Shenzhen to suspend the business license of Xinxinyu. But this is no solution as there may be many agencies operating in the field but have not been exposed in the media, web users said.