Corona Daily 439: Ukraine Baby Boom

The story of the stranded newborns in Ukraine came to light because Biotexcom, a leading surrogate agency published a promotional video this month. The video showed dozens of infants crying in unison, and masked nannies murmuring soothing words for parents locked down abroad. The Ukrainian ART (assisted reproductive technology) agencies had never faced a situation where by the end of 2020 they may be nursing a thousand children separated from parents since birth.

In 2015, many Asian countries, including India banned commercial surrogacy. Since then, Ukraine, Europe’s poorest nation, became the most attractive destination. In the USA, where allowed, surrogacy costs $ 100,000-150,000. In Ukraine, the total package is up to $ 50,000. Many EU nations ban surrogacy. Ukraine has loose legislation, Ukrainian women are white, generally in good health, educated. The egg donating and surrogacy business are lucrative particularly for impoverished women from smaller cities or rural areas. In a job, she struggles to earn $ 300 a month, but surrogacy can give her $ 15,000.

Agencies like Biotexcom have a transparent price list. The surrogate mother is paid 14,000 Euros (20,000 if carrying twins) + 2000 Euros for food. For a second pregnancy, an additional 2000 Euros, and additional 3000 Euros for a third pregnancy. If she smokes during pregnancy, she is fined. She is also entitled to 1000 Euros for good behaviour.

Agencies don’t recruit women from Eastern Ukraine, a war zone, for fear of losing the foreign child along with the surrogate mother.

Biotexcom owns a hotel called Venice, where the arriving foreign parents stay until the paperwork is over. Before the lockdown, 16 couples had successfully landed in Kiev. They are now with their babies, but can’t leave the country.

No child can leave the country without a valid passport. This is where things get complicated. Each country has different laws. Spain insists the surrogate child gets citizenship of the country where it is born. German laws define a mother as one who has delivered the child. In one prolonged case, a German court forced the parents to get the name of the Ukrainian surrogate mother on the certificate. Later with her consent, the German mother had to adopt her daughter. The German court had called it child trafficking, since Germans were smuggling a child born to a foreign woman in a foreign country. USA and many other nations insist on a DNA test to establish the genetic connection. Sometimes an embryo mix-up happens, and DNA test shows the absence of any common genes. The USA state department warns that such children are likely to be stateless. They can’t be taken out of Ukraine.

Some readers asked what would happen, God forbid, if the Argentinean couple (from yesterday’s story) falls victim to Covid-19. The father, after all, is a doctor in intensive care. In that situation, I am afraid, the child will become an orphan and the Ukrainian state will have to take care of him. The state will probably sue the agency, and claim compensation.

The human rights Ombudsman has now raised this issue in the Ukrainian parliament. The Catholic Bishops, after watching the Biotexcom video, called it an online store for little ones, with no-show from the customers.

Ravi