Heartbreaking images of babies carried to basement of a bunker in the Ukrainian capital Kyiv to protect them from the ongoing Russian bombardments illustrated the fate of those involved in Ukraine is booming global surrogacy sector.
The Russian-Ukrainian war deeply affected babies born to Ukrainian surrogate mothers and their biological families in other countries.
Ukraine is a grand international destination of surrogacy, given its very liberal laws, as well as fact that the prices are more affordable than in United States.
Since 2002, surrogacy and surrogacy in combination with egg/sperm donation is legal in Ukraine. According to Ukrainian law, a donor or a surrogate mother mother does not have parental rights over the child born and the child born is legally the child of foresight parents.
Before the war, a clinic in Kyiv provided a substitute mother family services, most of who could not have baby for cause health problems. Normally the parents living outside Ukraine who wanted have a baby via surrogacy were required to go to the country to come of the birth and complete relevant documents before taking their children home. However, they could not travel to the country after the war started.
Nearly 20 babies, all of carried by Ukrainian surrogate mothers for couples living overseas could not unite with their biological families in other countries and wait for their in the shelter of the clinic.
While the clinic’s caregivers do great efforts to comfort babies, some biological parents even risked coming Kyiv catch them. Happy endings appeared, with couples from the US, UK and Australia all making the safe journey and meeting their babies. However, hundreds of other families in despair awaits for end of the war so that they can reach their newborns.
