【Text/Observer Network Zhou Yibo】
The Russian-Ukrainian military conflict has left millions of Ukrainians fleeing their homes, but Ukrainian surrogate mothers with orders have to stay at home to complete the birth for the wealthy Western.
According to the New York Post reported on March 9 local time, the legal counsel of a surrogacy agency in Kiev, the capital of Ukraine, said that the center has a number of surrogate mothers who have fled Kiev due to the turmoil, but have arranged for them to return near the due date, because many countries around Ukraine do not allow surrogacy, and not giving birth in Ukraine will cause "a lot of problems in paperwork and (with customers) to establish parent-child relations."
To that end, the agency converted an air raid shelter into a makeshift delivery room to provide surrogate mothers with a safe area from the fighting to prevent them from fleeing Ukraine.
The British "Daily Mail" in a report detailed the dilemma faced by Ukrainian surrogate mothers: an American couple tried their best to "rescue" the two premature surrogate children carried by the surrogate mother, and the surrogate mother had to return to Ukraine to find her own child after being escorted to Poland.
Screenshot of the New York Post report
According to the UN refugee agency, more than 2 million Ukrainians have fled their homes since the outbreak of military clashes between Russia and Ukraine, and more are expected to join.
However, for the special group of Ukrainian surrogate mothers, their choices are not so free.
The New York Post reported that several surrogate mothers at a surrogacy agency in Kiev, Ukraine, called BioTexCom, had fled Kiev, but dennis Herman, the agency's legal adviser, said they would eventually have to come back — because surrogacy is banned in many countries near Ukraine.
If they finish production outside Ukraine, Herman said, "there will be a lot of problems with paperwork and parent-child relationships (with clients)."
"Under the laws of some countries, the legal mother of a child is the woman who gave birth to the child, regardless of her genetic relationship."
According to Herman, BioTexCom has arranged for surrogate mothers fleeing Kiev to return near their due date. To this end, the agency has also transformed an air raid shelter into a temporary delivery room to provide a safe area for surrogate mothers to escape the war, so as to ensure that they can stay in Kiev with peace of mind.
In Herman's view, the arrangement not only "removes legal barriers" for surrogate mothers, but also "keeps them safe."
"The roads are very dangerous and the train station is still overcrowded." Herman said, "Therefore, there are risks to the health of surrogate mothers and unborn children." ”
BioTexCom's Shelter for Surrogate Mothers Source: The New York Post
In addition to the safety of an individual's life, surrogate mothers are also worried about how to "deliver" to their clients.
"One of the concerns is when the child's 'parents' will be able to come and pick them up after the child is born." Herman said, "We are always in touch with all surrogates. If needed, we will help them relocate. ”
At the agency, a surrogate child born in a makeshift delivery room has reportedly been taken away by his "biological parents" who have fled Ukraine in the middle of the night in heavy snow.
Another pair of "birth parents" from Ireland arrived in Kiev on March 3 to meet their surrogate mother.
Couples who buy surrogacy services go to surrogacy agencies to pick up their children Image source: The New York Post
It is worth noting that the British "Daily Mail" in a report detailed the dilemma faced by Ukrainian surrogate mothers - after fleeing Ukraine with the surrogate child, they have to return to the country to find their own child.
A pair of premature twin brothers were born eight weeks ahead of schedule in a hospital in Kiev, exactly on Feb. 25 — a day after Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a "special military operation" in the Eastern Region. The Ukrainian mother who gave birth to the twins was named Katerina, but she was a surrogate mother who gave birth to surrogacy services for an American couple.
After several trips, the American couple reportedly contacted a nonprofit called Project Dynamo to help Caterina and the surrogate child evacuate Ukraine.
While waiting for the evacuation, Caterina hid in the hospital with her child during the day, and at night she had to move to a nearby church basement to avoid gunfire, and almost fell into the dilemma of "weaning the child" on the way.
Eventually, with the help of a rescue team formed by a U.S. military lieutenant colonel, Caterina drove all the way to Poland, where she handed over the surrogate child to their "biological father" on March 7.
But on the evening of March 9, Katerina had to return to the western Ukrainian city of Lviv because she had to retrieve her 6-year-old biological child.
Ukrainian surrogate mother Katerina Source: Daily Mail
Public information shows that Ukraine is one of the few countries in the world that allows surrogacy. Compared to the United States and the United Kingdom, the process of completing surrogacy in Ukraine is cheaper and the restrictions are more relaxed.
Specifically, BioTexCom offers surrogacy services for around $43,450 to $70,675, while surrogacy services in the U.S. tend to cost more than $100,000.
According to the Daily Mail, more than 2,000 babies are born through surrogacy every year in Ukraine.
The New York Post pointed out that the dilemma of Ukrainian surrogate mothers highlights the controversy in the commercial surrogacy industry , a practice in which Westerners search for legal and cheap surrogacy services in Ukraine has been slammed by critics as "rent-a-womb tourism" and classified as human trafficking, alleged exploitation of women.
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