Surrogacy in Ukraine - Times article

The pro-surrogacy lobby will definitely use this to argue for commercial surrogacy to be legalised here, and the insane price rises in the cost of living will mean there will be enough impoverished women desperate enough to contemplate doing it. These women will be left with life-long physical and psychological changes, and that's if the pregnancy and labour go well. It's horrific.

Posting without comment.

What is going g to happen to these women and their babies, giving birth in a bomb shelter? No blood transfusions or NICU for poorly babies presumably.

Just awful to contemplate. The article I shared has the story of a prematurely born baby and also noted the embryos that are 'stuck'.

The focus on the wealthy couples (you have to be a heterosexual couple for Surrogacy in Ukraine) who live safely outside of what is now country in a state of national emergency, and their infertility and embryos rather than the women who are not only living there now but who are pregnant and unable to get treatment let alone leave...it just amazes me.

The entitlement seeps through with every word. Someone needs to 'check their privilege'.

Last screenshot from the article.

200 babies due in the next three months from one clinic alone for clients from around the world. Although I believe Biotex is the biggest there are about 50 IVF clinics so there will be many more than 200 overall.

I have seen reports of calls for blood donors for emergency treatment.

What is going g to happen to these women and their babies, giving birth in a bomb shelter? No blood transfusions or NICU for poorly babies presumably.

14 babies for Irish couples by end May, 15 due to Australian couples by September. The U.K. number hasn't been publicised I don't think.

This article at least mentions the 'surrogates' (you know, the women who are pregnant, also called mothers).

"Ukraine has strict rules governing eligibility for surrogacy. The intended parents must be heterosexual, and have undergone at least four unsuccessful rounds of IVF. Surrogacy costs around $90,000, compared with more than $200,000 in the US.
Julia Osiyevska, the director of Ukrainian surrogacy clinic New Hope, which has Australian clients with babies due in April and May, said the women acting as surrogates were anxious, too. “There are many concerns how they are going to be paid, what other issues might arise,” she said.

... Some surrogate mothers have moved to neighbouring countries or to Greece, which is also a popular destination for fertility treatment and has clinics run by the same companies as operate in Ukraine. “I know of one case where the surrogate won’t leave the country because of her own family, but then what of course happens in two months time when the baby is born and the intended parents can’t come?” said Ms Bevan."

What indeed. How much coercion and near to impossible circumstances can one woman take?

https://www.smh.com.au/world/europe/a-nightmare-parents-fear-for-australian-surrogate-babies-in-ukraine-20220223-p59z3w.html

I'd love one of the surrogacy apologists to come and tell us how the this is all going to be ok, no harm done

Exactly.

So now there is war. And if these babies are lifted out of Ukraine, their adoptive parents will have to explain to them that the woman that gave them life was left to her fate in a war zone/left stateless in a third country and separated from her own family. And it wouldn't surprise me in the least if these women don't get paid.

I'd love one of the surrogacy apologists to come and tell us how the this is all going to be ok, no harm done.

I have been able to read the article and some of the comments and this article from the weekend says more. I like this bit:

"But those individual stories should not stop us asking why France, Spain, Germany, Poland and China have refused to assist their citizens with diplomatic requests to travel to Ukraine to collect babies born to surrogates. And they should not stifle concern around Ukraine being the commercial baby factory of the world."

www.thetimes.co.uk/article/the-dark-side-of-surrogacy-in-ukraine-mtd558333

The Times has also has published pro-surrogacy pieces. Not only was there a regular column in the Style magazine sharing the surrogacy 'journey' of commissioning parents Sophie Beresiner and her husband and the piece on Paul Morgan-Bentley and his husband but also a non-critical piece of a woman having her 7th surrogate baby.

I'd share the tokens but I unsubscribed over this issue, complaints on this proved fruitless.

I'm really pleased to see there is at least some critical thinking around international commercial surrogacy, it would be great if the same could apply to domestic so-called 'altruistic' surrogacy and we could have more than just the fluffy stuff from their own staff members.

Let's see - how does it look in the comments from those who can see?

Canadians are worrying about collecting their babies too. This article suggests there are contingency plans to move women to a range of neighbouring countries.

I just can't imagine how they may be feeling, worrying about existing children, not knowing where they will deliver, what sort of medical care they can expect, there may be language problems, how will they get home, who will care for them if they are I'll or have an LSCS, will there be legal problems as surrogacy laws differ from one country to another and there may be problems signing off the deal, will commissioning parents just drop out?

And all this stress is not good for the health of either mother or baby, there are lots of studies about stress affecting the unborn baby, increasing the chances of a premature birth, low birthweight and raised blood pressure in the mother.

It's just people trafficking and I am disgusted that people think this is OK. Women being shunted around like cattle.

Surrogacy tourism should be banned and prosecuted imo.

www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/article-crisis-in-ukraine-creates-fears-for-canadian-parents-using-ukrainian/

www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-60461780
The Irish Government are making it easier to bring Ukranian babies bought by citizens into the country with emergency documentation that usually takes a month to finalise. There are at least 68 Irish citizens registered with the embassy in Kyiv and they know of 12 babies due in May.
Reminds me of the Israeli airlift of babies and Jewish (mainly gay male couples) after the Nepal earthquake in 2015. Mothers left behind. It's a vile trade.

Just to add that the Sunday Times consistently reports feminist issues like this, and I'm so thankful for it.

I read the article earlier. I thought the suggestion that the surrogate leave her own children in Ukraine and travel to neighbouring Georgia to safeguard the pregnancy and allay the commissioning couple’s anxieties was horrible. What mother would leave her own children untended in a looming conflict zone? Her children’s ages weren’t mentioned but there could be numerous reasons for staying, the safety of teens (especially girls 😞) being as much of a worry in those circumstances as toddlers.

I found it very hard to read the article a few days ago where the coule from London had worried about getting the baby they had bought in Ukraine back to the UK. There was absolutely no mention of the birth mother, or any concern for her safety in any of this. Gross.