In extraordinary times, even if the child is born safely in the temporary delivery room, whether the parents in the foreign country can successfully pick up the child is another worrying problem.
In Ukraine, known as the "capital of surrogacy" and the "uterus of Europe", about 2,000 to 2,500 babies are born through surrogacy every year and then brought home by their parents from all over the world, mainly in the United States and Western countries.
Even as they get caught up in the war, the Ukrainian business, which poses enormous legal, ethical and life-threatening risks, has not stopped. A large fertility institution in Kiev revealed that about 200 surrogate babies are expected to be born in the next three months.
Since the outbreak of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, millions of Ukrainians have fled their former homes, but Ukrainian surrogate mothers with orders have not been so free. For various reasons, staying in the war zone and having children has become their only option now.
Source: The Guardian
Trapped surrogate mother
Cribs, gas masks, sleeping bags... Recently, an underground bomb shelter in Kiev, the capital of Ukraine, was converted into a temporary delivery room by a surrogacy agency called BioTexCom to accommodate surrogate mothers.
In the face of sudden fighting, more than 2 million Ukrainians have fled their homeland. But for surrogate mothers, they don't seem to have a choice.
Since surrogacy is banned in many countries near Ukraine, if they complete childbirth in other countries, there will be many problems in establishing parent-child relationships.
Specifically, under the laws of some countries, the legal mother of a child is the woman who gave birth to the child, and the blood and genetic relationship between mother and child are not taken into account. When the current pregnant mother wants to return her child to the client, she will also face a series of long and tedious paperwork.
So, even if the surrogate mothers escape from Ukraine, once the due date is approaching, in order to avoid trouble, they still have to return to Ukraine and give birth in the war zone.
Due to many legal problems, many surrogate mothers are forced to stay in the war zone and give birth. Source: The New York Post
"Train stations are already overcrowded and the way out is very dangerous, which puts surrogate mothers and unborn children at risk." Dennis Herman, legal counsel for BioTexCom, believes that keeping surrogate mothers in Ukraine will not only "remove legal barriers" but also "ensure their safety."
Surrogate mothers, trapped by complex legal requirements, also have their own concerns.
Ksch Kipler, the founder of Ukraine's "Pass on the Dream" surrogacy agency, decided to move the surrogate mothers to safer Lviv after the war broke out.
But she admits that for the most part, these surrogate mothers don't want to leave alone, "they don't want to leave their families and children behind."
Who will pick up the newborn child?
A temporary delivery room converted from an underground bomb shelter. Source: The New York Post
Recently, a couple from Argentina ventured to Ukraine to pick up their long-awaited surrogate baby.
Eugenia and Manori's child, Alfonso, was born on February 26, the day after the Russian-Ukrainian conflict erupted. Even when war broke out, the couple arrived in Ukraine as scheduled.
It's just that everything in front of them surprised them. Despite the Argentine Embassy urging them to urgently find shelter, Eugenia and Manori decided to risk their lives to find the child in an air raid shelter in Kiev.
According to the New York Post, Manori drove for 17 hours on a snowy night and finally took the child out of Ukraine and into the Romanian border.
But not all surrogate babies are as lucky as Alfonso. The Guardian reports that there are many parents across the globe who have lost contact with their surrogates in Ukraine. "I couldn't reach her, and I sadly refused." In a Facebook group, one member wrote.
In addition, there are some who are still in the war zone but have not been able to wait for their parents' surrogate babies, who will take care of them?
And the indifference of some couples also makes the surrogate cold. "They only worry about their children." After seeing a post posted by an American couple on a photo wall about taking the surrogate baby out of Ukraine, Olga Danchenko, a surrogacy lawyer from Kiev, said, "They didn't mention the woman who gave birth to them at all." ”
Produced by Deep Sea Studio
Written by Deep Sea Otter
Edited by Deep Sea Shell