Infertile Women Around The Globe Head East To Enjoy Parenthood

14.12.2010

Today’s world community is observing a growing phenomenon of women who are unable to get pregnant - and facing a ban on surrogate pregnancy at home - travel to Ukraine to be able to enjoy parenthood. Victims of society's stigma against childless women, especially in the Balkans, they also confront the hostility of the law in most countries to paid-for surrogacy. They are attracted by Ukraine's relaxed laws on commercial surrogacy, its highly developed medical infrastructure and the price.

Most women heading for Ukraine come from Western Europe and the Americas - only they can usually afford the fees. But a growing number of women belong to middle-class professionals from the Balkans for whom the cost is still a matter of concern. According to Bulgarian social anthropologist Haralan Alexandrov, today's more conservative climate on surrogacy - and the silence surrounding the issue - reflects the strength of patriarchal values in the region. Therefore many women from the Balkans choose Ukraine as the closest and most affordable option.

For women who want to escape the taboo on childlessness, and who do not want to adopt, the only solution is to find a surrogate mother who will carry their egg to maturity. For most governments, however, surrogacy raises serious ethical dilemmas, mainly concerning women being paid to carry children for someone else. That is why no European Union country allows commercial surrogacy, and why women seeking reproductive support agencies are heading east to Ukraine, Russia, Georgia, Kazakhstan, or even further afield to India. In the EU, Austria, Germany, Sweden, France, Hungary and Italy prohibit all forms of surrogacy, paid-for or not. Britain, the Netherlands, Belgium, Denmark and Greece allow surrogacy, as long as no commercial element is involved.

Ukrainian law, by contrast, is the most surrogacy-friendly in Europe. Article 123.2 of Ukraine's Family Code stipulates that women may receive financial compensation to carry someone else's child, and the law places no limits on the amount that can be paid. The law also guarantees the biological mother's legal rights to the child or children born in the surrogate mother's womb. No adoption process or court order of any kind is required. The entire process is regulated by a contract signed between the agency or clinic, the biological mother and the surrogate mother. By this, the surrogate mother surrenders all rights to the child carried in her womb. Only the names of the biological parents are entered on the birth certificate.

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