Ukrainian surrogate babies separated from foreign parents provoke ethical discussion

Over 100 babies born to surrogate mothers in Ukraine have been separated from their foreign parents because foreign citizens can’t enter Ukraine during the coronavirus quarantine.

And while Ukraine’s borders will remain shut until at least May 22,  the date when the quarantine officially ends, the number of surrogate-born babies kept far away from their biological parents will continue to grow.

According to Liudmyla Denysova, the Verkhovna Rada commissioner for human rights, who monitors the situation, it can be “not hundreds, but thousands of babies” that local reproduction centers will have to look for until Ukraine opens its borders.

Ukraine is one of several countries in Europe that allows surrogacy programs for foreigners. After Thailand and India banned commercial surrogacy several years ago, Ukraine has experienced a higher demand for such services from foreign couples who can’t have children. Thousands of babies are born to surrogate mothers in the country every year.

But as the issue came into the spotlight, it provoked a wider discussion inside the country concerning the ethics of surrogacy and the flawed legislation that regulates the matter.

A nurse feed a newborn baby at the Venice hotel that belongs to the BioTexCom reproduction center, which provides surrogacy services in Ukraine, on May 15, 2020. (AFP)

Separation

The problem caught the public’s eye after one of the Kyiv clinics, BioTexCom, which provides surrogacy services, published a video to reassure the parents that their babies are taken care of.

BioTexCom alone has 51 surrogate-born babies inside their hotel called Venice, where parents normally stay with their newborns. Their parents come from all parts of the world, including the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, and China.

Now, however, only 15 of those babies have parents around – those, who managed to cross the border before the quarantine started or managed to receive permission to enter under the lockdown.

The rest 36 babies are cared for by the clinic’s nurses, who currently live in the company’s hotel to avoid getting infected by the coronavirus outside of the institution. The published video displays how the staff is feeding and bathing babies.

However, the footage appears to have had another goal – to attract attention. In one of the episodes, dozens of babies are lying in rows of bassinets and crying. Those shots provoked both public sentiment and outrage.

BioTexCom’s lawyer Denys Herman says that before the video was published, some of the foreign couples that appealed to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs were denied entrance to the country.

He says that if international travel isn’t resumed for several more months, the number of surrogate-born babies in their clinic alone will double. That is why there’s a need for a simple procedure for such parents to cross the Ukrainian border.

Denysova at first criticized surrogacy in a Facebook post about BioTexCom’s video on May 13. She said the practice was an issue and called on banning surrogacy programs for foreigners.

However, after the ombudswoman visited the clinic on May 14, she changed her rhetoric.

Talking to media, she said that the babies are taken care of and the conditions they live in are good.

Denysova said that it’s a problem that all these children can’t be united with their parents. She called on parents to contact her so that she can help them get permission to enter Ukraine through the foreign affairs ministry and the State Migration Service.

BioTexCom’s Heman, the lawyer, says that the ombudswoman reassured them that she is working on developing a fast procedure for foreign couples to travel to Ukraine.

“We believe there will be an effective solution,” Herman told the Kyiv Post.

In a comment to Ukraine’s Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, deputy foreign minister Yevhen Yenin said that the ministry will consider every couple’s case separately. They will give permission to enter the country to parents that don’t pose risks to the life and health of a baby. However, he didn’t mention how they will decide that.

Ethics and legislation

The video published by BioTexCom has triggered a mixed reaction inside the Ukrainian society.

Many posted hateful comments under the video, calling surrogacy “human trade” and saying that the clinic is “a baby factory.”

In fact, some officials joined public criticism of such services. Mykola Kuleba, Ukraine’s commissioner of the president for children’s rights, said that the situation with BioTexCom shows the disenfranchisement of children born to surrogate mothers.

He also said that the birth of a child far away from a mother is unnatural and surrogacy treats children as a commodity.

“The commercialization and permission to receive such a ‘service’ in Ukraine promote the uncontrolled sale of Ukrainian children abroad,” Kuleba wrote on Facebook on May 14.

However, others strongly disagree with such an opinion.

Lawyer and the Head of Ukraine’s Medical and Reproductive Law Center Sergii Antonov is one of them. He is currently working for several foreign couples that undergo surrogacy programs in Ukraine.

According to Antonov, about 1,000 local and 3,000 foreign couples use such programs in dozens of Ukrainian clinics yearly. Most of them come from the U.S., the U.K., Spain and China. Some travel here as far as from Australia and Argentina.

The lawyer says that surrogacy is classified as one of the infertility treatments that is administered only when none of the other ones proves to be effective.

“It’s not trading, it’s a medical procedure,” Antonov told the Kyiv Post.

Nurses care for newborn babies at the Venice hotel that belongs to the BioTexCom reproduction center, which provides surrogacy services in Ukraine, on May 15, 2020. (AFP)

Antonov says that, in Ukraine, couples have to be married to have their baby born to surrogate mothers. They also have to provide proof of the infertility diagnosis.

The genetic parents of a surrogate-born baby are considered this baby’s legal parents, Antonov says.

“Any treatment is ethical,” he says.

According to the lawyer, it’s not the ethical but legislative side that needs improvement in the surrogacy services — there is no separate law that regulates surrogacy.

Antonov says that a big flaw is that Ukraine doesn’t determine what clinics can provide surrogacy services. There is also no criminal or administrative responsibility for violating the norms for such programs.

Some shady companies might use these gaps to treat surrogacy as a business, the lawyer says.

Another issue is that reproductive rights are not determined in any law.

“If (legislation) is fragmentary, then many things are left unregulated,” Antonov said.