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coochiequeens · 4 months

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It's not everyday this blog agrees with the Pope but when it comes to surrogacy we agree that it exploits women and babies.

Rome — Pope Francis on Monday called for surrogate motherhood to be banned worldwide, calling the practice of surrogacy "deplorable" and saying an unborn child "cannot be turned into an object of trafficking."

In a wide-ranging speech to ambassadors of the 184 countries that have diplomatic relations with the Vatican, the pope said surrogacy represented a grave violation of the dignity of the woman and the child and that it exploited surrogate mothers' financial circumstances.

Pope Francis leads the Angelus prayer at the Vatican, Jan. 7, 2024.VATICAN MEDIA/HANDOUT VIA REUTERS

"A child is always a gift and never the basis of a commercial contract," Francis said.

In 2022, the pope called surrogacy "inhuman," saying "women, almost all poor, are exploited, and children are treated like goods."

Laws on surrogacy differ widely around the world. Only a few countries, and some states in the U.S., allow commercial surrogacy. Others allow "altruistic" surrogacy, where no money is exchanged. Many other nations, including most in Europe, have banned it altogether.

Francis included surrogacy in his list of conflicts and divisions threatening world peace in his annual speech to the diplomat corps, sometimes referred to as the pontiff's "state of the world" address. This year he also reflected on the ongoing wars in the Gaza Strip and Ukraine, the immigration crisis, climate change, arms proliferation, antisemitism, the persecution of Christians and artificial intelligence, among other topics.

The pope said the wars in Gaza and Ukraine prove that all conflicts end up indiscriminately affecting civilian populations where they are fought.

"We must not forget that grave violations of international humanitarian law are war crimes," he said.

#Pope Francis #Anti surrogacy sunday #Surrogacy exploits women #Babies are not commodities #Reproductive purchasers #Child trafficking #Surrogacy is a grave violation of the dignity of the woman

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duaneodavila · 6 years

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No Cake Or Babies For You

The summer of 2018 has had some rough spots when it comes to the legal outlook for LGBTQ hopeful parents. That’s true both in the United States and internationally.

On the heels of several good years of Supreme Court terms, October Term 2017 was a dud. Two years ago, 2015 brought us Obergefell, the U.S. Supreme Court decision making same-sex marriage legal throughout the country. And in last year’s Pavan, the Court reiterated that those Constitutionally guaranteed protections included the “constellation of rights that come with marriage.” Like being a parent. Or, more specifically in that case, being treated equally under a state assisted reproductive technology statute.

But red flags have been popping up that we may be headed back in the other direction. Last month, the Court issued its long-anticipated ruling in Masterpiece Cakeshop (where a cakeshop owner refused to make a wedding cake for a gay couple). While the judgment was specific to the case and very narrowly addressed only situations where religious animus in the administrative process had tainted the proceedings, the end result was that it ruled in favor of the cakeshop owner who had denied services to the gay couple. And now, if you get past the wedding (cake or no cake), and want children, the stars forming that “constellation of rights that come with marriage” for hopeful LGBTQ parents may feel a little less bright.

Supreme Disappointment

The announcement of Justice Anthony Kennedy’s retirement came as a shock to many. Credited as a key swing vote supporting LGBTQ rights, Kennedy will be missed. The nominee for Kennedy’s seat on the Court, Brett Kavanaugh, has been declared anti-LGBTQ and anti-civil rights by Lambda Legal, a prominent LGBTQ advocacy organization. While Kavanaugh’s record on the bench with the D.C. Circuit is hard to read in this context, it certainly points in a very conservative direction.

No Discriminating Against Discriminators

Last week, the House Appropriations Committee adopted an amendment to a proposed funding bill that would prohibit the withholding of funding from adoption agencies because of their “sincerely held religious beliefs or moral convictions.” The amendment worked to protect religious-based agencies, regardless of refusal to work with LGBTQ couples, on multiple levels. It also mandated that the federal government withhold 15 percent of federal funds for child welfare programs from states discriminating against agencies that discriminate.

A number of jurisdictions — such as California, Illinois, Massachusetts, and Washington, D.C. — have made it illegal for adoption agencies to discriminate against same-sex couples. The funding amendment would reduce federal funding for these jurisdictions to punish them for making discrimination illegal. In most cases, that will likely be about a sincerely held religious belief that LGBTQ persons should not be able to adopt children. But of course, the discrimination doesn’t have to be anti-LGBTQ. It could be, for instance, anti-Jewish, anti-Muslim, or anti-single person.

The full bill still has a ways to go before it would be law, because it would first need to pass both the House and the Senate, and then signed by President Trump. So the machinery of government may yet stop the bill’s chance of becoming law. So no panicking on this one yet.

No Surrogacy For Gay Israelis

Parental rights are not just an American issue. Israel just passed an amendment to their surrogacy statute continuing the exclusion of gay couples from using surrogacy within the country. LGBTQ persons have been fighting for some time to be included. Under the old law, only married heterosexual couples could pursue surrogacy within Israel. Everyone else (singles, gay couples) had to go abroad (like to the U.S.) if surrogacy was their only, or preferred, path to a child.

The amendment that passed today is (kind of) exciting for single women. The revised statute allows single women to grow their family via surrogacy, and increases the number of children permitted by surrogacy from two to five. But LGBTQ individuals and couples remain out.

Israeli Knesset member Itzik Shmuli called out the exclusion. “We are good enough to serve the country, but not to be parents. It’s an insult I cannot describe. It is a situation that is simply discriminatory, painful, and full of insults and dishonesty. This is wrong.”

I asked Victoria Gelfand, an Israeli family formation attorney, for her thoughts. She agreed with Shmuli. “Such discrimination via legislation in 2018 is outrageous.” She also argued that the amendment was in direct contradiction to an order of the Israeli High Court last year that parliament should weigh in and amend the surrogacy law to make the law more equitable.

Gelfand also pointed out how narrow the amendment is — only permitting single women using their own eggs, while probably the majority of women who can’t carry a pregnancy can’t produce viable eggs either. The amendment does not allow surrogacy for single women using donated eggs, single men, same sex couples or co-parents not in a relationship. Ouch.

In the last couple days, thousands have been out in Israel protesting the exclusion of LGBTQ families and more action is expected with a call for a strike by community members this Sunday. Here’s to hoping their voices are heard. At least Israeli gay couples (who can afford it) can still come to the U.S. We hope. As we hold our breath that the latest U.S. anti-LGBTQ funding bill is just an anomalous blip. And that our new Justice surprises us all.

Ellen Trachman is the Managing Attorney of Trachman Law Center, LLC, a Denver-based law firm specializing in assisted reproductive technology law, and co-host of the podcast I Want To Put A Baby In You. You can reach her at [email protected].

No Cake Or Babies For You republished via Above the Law

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coochiequeens · 15 days

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She's right and she should say it.

Apr 12, 2024

MELONI-SURROGACY:Surrogate parenthood is 'inhuman', Italy's Meloni says

Surrogate parenthood is an "inhuman" practice that treats children as "supermarket products," Italy's prime minister said on Friday, urging parliament to pass a bill to prosecute those who go abroad for it.

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni remarked about surrogate parenthood being 'inhuman' during an event. (REUTERS)

Parenting via surrogacy is already illegal in Italy, punishable with jail and fines, but the right-wing coalition of Giorgia Meloni has vowed to impose an even stricter ban on it as part of its conservative agenda.

"No one can convince me that it is an act of freedom to rent one's womb, no one can convince me that it is an act of love to consider children as an over-the-counter product in a supermarket," she said at an event in Rome.

"I still consider the practice of uterus renting to be inhuman, I support the proposed law making it a universal crime."

The Italian parliament is discussing a bill drafted by Meloni's Brothers of Italy party to prohibit Italians from having a baby in countries where surrogacy is legal - such as the United States and Canada.

The party's position echoes the Vatican's.

The bill, approved by Italy's lower house Chamber and now at the Senate, has been criticised by rights groups and some opposition politicians who see it as targeting LGBTQ people.

"The issue cannot be tackled with universal prohibition, but with regulation that balances the rights at stake," ex-foreign minister Emma Bonino told daily Corriere della Sera this week.

#Italy #Anti surrogacy sunday #Surrogacy exploits women #Babies are not commodities #Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni is telling the truth #Surrogacy is human trafficking #No one is entitled to biological offspring

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coochiequeens · 10 months

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As long as women live in poverty and are vulnerable to exploitation there needs to be greater regulation in commercial surrogacy.

As we all know, pregnancy generally takes around nine months, plus recovery time. And humans aren’t great at having much more than one or two children at once. That really limits how many children one person or couple can have at a time.

Or at least it used to.

Assisted reproductive technology and gestational surrogacy have changed what’s possible for human reproduction. For those suffering medical or other obstacles, surrogacy can be a miracle solution to parenthood. Others, however, are pushing the limits on the possibilities provided by the new technology.

1,000 Children, Please

Japanese businessman Mitsutoki Shigeta made headlines in 2014 when Thai authorities discovered nine babies being cared for in a mostly unfurnished condo in Bangkok. The children were all genetically related to Shigeta, and born by surrogacy. Mariam Kukunashvili, a co-founder of the Thai fertility clinic that assisted Shigeta in finding surrogates, reported Shigeta to Thai authorities after Shigeta “revealed plans for more than 1,000 children.” Kukunashvili and Thai authorities were concerned that Shigeta may be involved in human trafficking.

Yet a Thai court later awarded Shigeta custody of all nine of his children, in addition to other children who were genetically related to him, and found elsewhere. After hearing evidence, the court also found no evidence of human trafficking. So, a happy ending?

Not quite.

Shigeta’s case was not the only one grabbing headlines as to the questionability of surrogacy. Another nightmare case around the same time. There, an Australian couple conceived twins via a Thai surrogate. After the twins’ birth, reports came out that the parents returned to Australia with only one of the twins, leaving behind the other twin, who had been diagnosed with Down syndrome. (Although it later came to light that the parents tried to leave with both babies and were unable to.)

In 2015, Thailand responded by banning non-Thai citizens from paying Thai women to act as surrogates, including the potential of a 10-year prison sentence for violators. The result was a complete shutdown of Thailand’s international surrogacy practices.

As frequently happens, when one country shuts down international surrogacy, another country sees a rise in business. In the past couple of decades, the Eastern European country of Georgia has seen surrogacy grow in popularity. But that looks like it may all end as well.

20 Kids In A Year

Shigeta isn’t the only one to look to surrogacy to have a high number of children in a short time. One couple in Georgia has received media coverage over their fast-growing family. With the help of surrogates, the couple, Kristina and Galip Ozturk, have had 21 children in just over a year. And they have plans for additional children. Like Shigeta, the Georgia couple have the financial means to afford surrogacy, as well as a large staff to care for their growing families.

Georgia Closes Its Doors

Last month, Georgia introduced a bill to shut down compensated surrogacy in that country and to specifically exclude all international intended parents. Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili announced on June 12, 2023, that a bill was in progress to tightly regulate surrogacy in the country.

Unafraid of embracing homophobic rhetoric, Garibashvili specifically cited concerns that same-sex couples may be having children in Georgia, and taking them home. But others noted, as though it were a good thing, that there was already a process in place in Georgia preventing same-sex couples from accessing surrogacy services.

The new law in Georgia is expected to pass this fall. It prohibits women in Georgia from being compensated for surrogacy, limiting the practice only to “altruistic” surrogacy arrangements. It also prohibits Georgian women from carrying pregnancies for foreign couples starting in 2024.

That’s bad news for couples like the Ozturks, who are unlikely to be as successful at finding willing surrogates if they are not permitted to pay them. Though at 21 kids, they can hopefully declare victory and be finished. The real issue is that the new Georgia law is bad news for international hopeful parents, who may be unable to afford the price tag in the United States for surrogacy.

US Guidelines

The United States has not turned a blind eye to the issue. In 2022, the American Society for Reproductive Medicine (ASRM) issued “Recommendations for practices using gestational carriers: a committee opinion.” Among the list of criteria for rejection of intended parents is an “inability to maintain respectful and caring relationship with a gestational carrier,” ”ongoing legal disputes,” and — on point here — “Intended parents’ reproductive plan is to pursue concurrent pregnancies by embryo transfers to more than one gestational carrier or seeking concurrent pregnancies for a gestational carrier and intended parent.”

Most fertility clinics in the United States are members of ASRM and committed to following ASRM guidelines and recommendations. So while it is not technically illegal to pursue multiple surrogacy pregnancies at once in the United States, it may now be difficult to find the medical providers to support the plan.

When intended parents take family-building to an extreme, the temptation can be to cast doubt on the appropriateness of surrogacy generally. But that is a misguided reflexive reaction. Regulation can solve the problem of those trying to build an army of children. But for those with limited options who turn to surrogacy for the hopes of a child, eliminating surrogacy means eliminating one of the most viable options to family formation.

So let’s hope that stories likes the Ozturks’ and Shegeta’s don’t ruin it for others.

#anti surrogacy sunday #babies are not commodities #Mitsutoki Shigeta #A guy has custody of over nine children he had by surrogates in smother country?#Men creating children who have no recognized mother #How happy are the kids being created by the dozen?#Nannies are not the same as mothers

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coochiequeens · 11 months

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Speakers and hosts agreed that instead of regulating the practice of surrogacy, which would only create demand, efforts should be made to highlight that surrogacy means, in essence, the commodification of children who become objects of surrogacy agreements, which is a deep violation of their human dignity.“

The European Christian Political Movement together with the offices of Members of the European parliament Bert Jan Ruissen (ECR) and Miriam Lexmann (EPP) organized on 23 May a conference on parenthood policies in the European Union, with a focus on the issue of surrogacy.

The two keynote speakers invited to provide expertise on the matter were Adina Portaru, Senior Counsel for the faith-based legal advocacy organization ADF International and Olivia Sarton, the scientific director of the French children’s rights organization Juristes Pour l’Enfance (Lawyers for Childhood).

The conference came as a response to the European Commission’s recent proposal for a EU-certificate of parenthood which is currently being debated in the European Parliament. This initiative would put pressure on member state governments to sanction surrogacy even though a country may not allow the practice.

It also comes as a contradiction to what the Commission has repeatedly said on various occasions: that the European institutions do not have competenceover issues like family, marriage, parenting, etc.

The hosts suggested that surrogacy fuels abuse, human trafficking, violating the rights of vulnerable women and children, in essence violating human dignity. The practice commodifies both children and women’s wombs, which is unacceptabl, they said.

Olivia Sarton underlined that surrogacy is a new form of exploitation that takes advantage of the bodies of women and appropriates the children they bear. She added that the conditions under which many women consent to the practice (state of need and psychological fragility) cast doubt on whether they freely gave their consent. She also made reference to the Casablanca Declaration, which calls for the universal abolition of surrogacy.

According to Portaru, the above-mentioned proposal of the European Commission puts into practice a very specific objective that the EU has pursued and promoted in the past years, captured in the slogan: “If you are parent in one country, you are parent in every country”. For her, this means that “if one EU country recognizes, for example, a US judgment which recognizes parenthood emanating from a surrogate agreement, that relationship or birth certificate will have to be recognized throughout the EU. Therefore, de facto, all kinds of surrogacy will be allowed and justified through the proposed regulation”.

#Europe #european union #Juristes Pour l’Enfance (Lawyers for Childhood)#The European Christian Political Movement #Anti surrogacy sunday #surrogacy exploits women #Babies are not commodities #no one is entitled to biological children #Casablanca declaration

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coochiequeens · 1 month

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Yes it's form a conservative source. But it's one of the few articles that doesn't focus on reproductive purchasers who felt entitled to a child.

by Emma Waters, @EMLWATERS

Olivia Maurel was 30 years old when an ancestry DNA test confirmed what she had known all along: she is the product of a costly commercial surrogacy contract. In Olivia’s case, the woman that her parents paid to gestate and birth Olivia is also her biological mother.

In a recent article with Daily Mail, Olivia shared how “becoming a parent myself — entirely naturally, in my mid-20s — has only crystallized my view. The sacred bond between mother and baby is, I feel, something that should never be tampered with.” After going viral for her testimony before the parliament of the Czech Republic, Olivia now campaigns for the universal abolition of surrogacy.

In the United States, only three states prohibit or do not enforce commercial surrogacy contracts. One of the states, Michigan, is poised to overturn their ban on surrogacy-for-pay through a nine-bill “Access to Fertility Healthcare Package.” Legislators are tying their efforts to the national conversation on in vitro fertilization in hopes of garnering additional support. I detail the concerns with this legislation in detail here, but suffice it to say it undermines motherhood by reducing the intimate relationship between a woman and the child she carries to a highly-lucrative rental agreement.

Several well-respected researchers and pundits claim that surrogacy does not harm children. Yet we know very little about its long-term impact on a child’s psychological well-being.

Most of those who assert that surrogacy is psychologically harmless rely on a longitudinal study by Susan Golombok, Professor Emerita of Family Research, and former Director of the Centre for Family Research at the University of Cambridge. She is the author of We Are Family (2020), a synthesis of 40 years of research on non-traditional family structures—same-sex, single parent by choice, and the use of all forms of assisted reproductive technology, including third-party conception. She concludes that such arrangements pose no additional harm and can benefit children.

Professor Golombok’s “Families Created Through Surrogacy” study began in 2003 and assessed parental and child psychological adjustment at ages 1, 2, 3, 7, 10, and 14. The impact of this single longitudinal study on both public opinion and policy cannot be overstated. To date, it is the only study that specifically examines the surrogate-born child’s psychological adjustment, as well as the only study to do so over an extended period. It is also the only research on child psychological well-being that policymakers in New York used to argue for the legalization of commercial surrogacy.

Professor Golombok’s sample of surrogacy families comes from the General Register Office of the United Kingdom for National Statistics (ONS) and from the UK’s “Childlessness Overcome Through Surrogacy” (COTS) agency. The original sample included 42 surrogate-born children but declined to a mere 28 children by age 14. The study relied on a group of families formed through egg donation and children born of natural conception to serve as the comparison groups.

With such a small sample size, and some families participating inconsistently year-to-year, the study itself runs the risk of selection bias and non-representative outcomes. The study lumps both children born through gestational surrogacy and traditional surrogacy together, too. This means some surrogates are both the genetic mother and the child's gestational mother.

Additionally, only altruistic surrogacy is legal in the UK, so these arrangements do not involve surrogates who legally receive an additional sum of money, beyond generous reimbursements. For context, surrogacy-for-pay brings in an additional $25,000 to $70,000 in the United States, which may affect how a child views his or her conception, gestation, and birth.

In each study, the scholars rely on the mother’s own assessment of the child’s well-being. It is not until age 14 when scholars begin to directly ask children questions to assess their self-esteem.

Overall, Professor Golombok concludes that children born from surrogacy agreements of any sort do as well, if not better, psychologically than their natural-born peers.

For ages 1, 2, and 3, Professor Golombok finds that parents in surrogacy families showed “greater warmth and attachment-related behavior” than natural-conception parents. One explanation for this, as Professor Golombok’s notes, is that “parents of children born in this way [may] make a greater attempt than parents of naturally conceived children to present their families in the best possible light.” Such a bias seems likely, given that parents may feel the subconscious desire to justify their uncommon path to parenthood.

By age 7, both surrogate-born children and donor-conceived children in the control group were doing noticeably worse than their natural-born counterparts. This is the point when many children learned of their biological or gestational origins. The scholars note that this corresponds with adoption literature as the period in a child’s life when they begin to comprehend the loss of one or both biological parents. What goes unnoted, however, is that unlike adoption, surrogacy is the intentional creation of a child for the express purpose of removing the child from his or her gestational and/or biological parent(s).

Beginning at age 10, scholars report that the child’s psychological adjustment returns to a relatively normal state compared to the natural-born children, but the study itself reports little data compared to previous papers. By age 14, when the study concludes, the remaining 28 children seem to fare about the same as natural-born children, despite slightly more psychological problems reported.

Despite these methodological limitations, Professor Golombok’s data from this longitudinal study remains the basis of child psychological adjustment research on surrogacy. Examples of this may be found in prominent pieces such as Vanessa Brown Calder's review of surrogacy at the Cato Institute or Cremieux Recueil's widely shared Substack with Aporia Magazine. Their conclusions that surrogacy confers “no harm” to the psychological well-being of the child are premature, to say the least.

In Calder’s article, she cites three studies in her discussion on the psychological well-being of surrogate-born children. A quick review of each study shows that these authors rely solely on Professor Golombok’s longitudinal study data to draw their conclusions.

In Recueil’s Substack, "Surrogacy: Looking for Harm," he primarily relies on Golombok’s work to claim that “psychological harm appears to be minimal.” Again, this statement is premature and formed on limited data primarily from her longitudinal study. The other five citations in the “Psychological Outcomes for Kids” section tell us little about the psychological well-being of surrogate-born children.

Recueil twice cites “Are the Children Alright? A Systematic Review of Psychological Adjustment of Children Conceived by Assisted Reproductive Technologies,” from 2022. Of the 11 studies that examine the intersection between surrogacy and child psychological outcomes, they fall into three categories:

the longitudinal study by Professor Golombok

child outcomes compared with other children born from assisted reproductive technology, not compared with natural-born children

studies that examine the impact of non-traditional parenting types, such as lesbian mothers or gay fathers, on the well-being of the child. The impact of surrogacy is not directly assessed; it is simply mentioned as a requirement for male-to-male family formation. Of these three categories, the only studies that directly address the claims that Recueil makes are the research of Professor Golombok, which he already cited before these additional studies.

Hence, the widespread claim that surrogacy does not harm the psychological well-being of children primarily relies on a single longitudinal study of 42-to-28 surrogate-born children by the intended mother’s own assessment. That’s it.

This isn’t to say we should discard Professor Golombok’s study. But honest scholars and lawmakers should be far more modest in claiming that surrogacy does not harm the psychological well-being of children.

The most accurate conclusion regarding the psychological adjustment of surrogate-born children is that we do not have enough data to draw a conclusion either way, especially not in favor of surrogacy itself. When the well-being of children is at stake, lawmakers and researchers should employ the utmost scrutiny before advocating for any form of childbearing.

Children rightly desire to please their parents, and there are few conversations more complicated than questioning the method one’s parents chose to bring one into the world. There is reason to believe that many surrogate-born children will not have the emotional or mental maturity to understand their conception and gestation until they are much older.

There is a huge difference between no harm and no known harm. Regardless of one’s stance on surrogacy, we should be able to agree that we need more data and reporting requirements to enable researchers to assess the impact of surrogacy contracts on the well-being of children. In my view, a single six-part longitudinal study does not justify this practice.

Emma Waters is a Senior Research Associate for the Richard and Helen DeVos Center for Life, Religion and Family at The Heritage Foundation.

#Anti surrogacy sunday #Surrogacy exploits women #Babies are not commodities #Surrogacy is human trafficking #michigan #Access to Fertility Healthcare Package #General Register Office of the United Kingdom for National Statistics (ONS)#Childlessness Overcome Through Surrogacy” (COTS)#Surrogacy is the intentional creation of a child for the express purpose of removing the child from his or her gestational and/or biologica #Small sample size for a study #The results are based on answers given by a biased parent #We need more studies before experts can say weather or not surrogacy impacts children #There is a huge difference between no harm and no known harm

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coochiequeens · 1 day

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Gwen Stefani is 54 and Blake Shelton is 47. Waiting too long to have a kid together is not infertility.

Gwen Stefani and her husband Blake Shelton want to have a baby through surrogacy.

A source spilled to the National Enquirer, “Gwen and Blake have been wanting a baby of their own for years now.”

“They’ve had surrogates on board, but something always seems to fall through at the last minute. It’s been a struggle,” shared an insider.

Gwen , who has three children with her ex-husband Gavin Rossdale, revealed thet they had been trying to get pregnant before their 2021 wedding.

Another source revealed that the couple had “ no luck with conventional methods, the pair looked to surrogacy”.

“They’ve even talked to other celebrities who’ve used surrogates successfully, like Nick Jonas, whom they befriended on The Voice,” remarked an insider.

However, nothing has worked out as other source revealed, “It must be a complicated situation.”

“Maybe something just didn’t feel right for Gwen or Blake or both of them,” continued another source,

The source told the outlet, “In one instance, friends say Gwen wanted to use a surrogate in California and Blake wanted someone far removed from Hollywood.”

In another case, the surrogate “backed out because of the pressure. When it doesn’t work out, it’s wrenching for Gwen and Blake”.

“They both want to connect with the surrogate because there’s a lot at stake,” stated an insider.

The source added, “It’s a huge commitment and they just want to get it right.”

“While this whole process has been extremely difficult for them, it’s really brought them closer together,” mentioned an insider.

The source stated, “Blake just wants Gwen to be happy and she wants the same for him. She knows he desperately wants to be a dad.”

#Anti surrogacy sunday #Surrogacy exploits women #Wanting to have kids later in life #Babies are not commodities #If they have a kid nearing and after 50 while working in the music industry how much time and energy will they have for the kid?#Would the hell ate they doing that make potential surrogates back out?

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coochiequeens · 5 months

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Surrogate parents are exploiting an egg donor, the woman who grows the fetus, and the woman who donates her milk.

CHICAGO, Nov. 28, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- ConceiveAbilities, a groundbreaking surrogacy agency dedicated to supporting individuals on the journey to building families, proudly announces the outstanding success of its Milk Bank Challenge. Surpassing an ambitious 2023 goal of 1 million ounces, due to the generosity of more than 1,000 lactating and giving women, the initiative has already achieved this remarkable milestone.

The original target for 2023 was one million ounces of donated breast milk for local milk banks nationwide. Through the 2023 MilkBankChallenge, the contributions of 1,200 women resulted in a total donation of 1,064,000 ounces to over 50 local milk banks.

Founder Nazca Fontes expressed gratitude, stating, "When we set the goal of one million ounces, it seemed lofty, but I never doubted the generosity of these amazing women and their willingness to make such an impactful gift."

Since its launch in June 2022, the #MilkBankChallenge has inspired more than 1,800 women to donate an astonishing 1.7 million ounces of breast milk. ConceiveAbilities' team members, including Lacie Vigil who contributed 1,160 ounces, have also actively participated. Vigil adds, "Donating breast milk is something that I am so proud of. There is no better feeling than knowing that a baby was fed because of my decision to donate."

Lexi Berry, a three-time surrogate, shared her experience, "I just sent in my 43rd cooler to Preemies Milk Bank. Between both of my surro journeys, I have donated just about 34,000 ounces."

The #MilkBankChallenge was initiated by ConceiveAbilities to address the urgent need for milk banks to replenish their supply during the infant formula shortage that reached a crisis in 2022. The overwhelming success of the challenge prompted an elevation of the 2023 goal to one million ounces.

ConceiveAbilities sees lactation as an important component of its All-In Surrogate Care and Compensation Package, recognizing the significance of the fourth trimester in postpartum recovery. The #MilkBankChallenge aligns with the organization's commitment to sharing valuable information for women during their fourth trimester, including resources on lactation.

To continue this impactful journey until December 31, 2023, the community is urged to share this link on #GivingTuesday, encouraging lactating women to join in donating their breast milk surplus to support infants in need.

#Creating babies with the intention of removing them from the one who would be able to breastfeed them #Milk Bank Challenge #ConceiveAbilities Surrogacy & Egg Donation Agency #Surrogate mothers and the fourth trimester #Surrogacy exploits women #Babies are not commodities #No one is entitled to biological offspring #Anti surrogacy sunday

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coochiequeens · 9 months

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"You’d just be carrying it for nine months," they countered. "You wouldn’t really have to do anything." Something only an entitled man would say.

Why I Refused To Serve As A Surrogate For My Best Friend And His Partner

My uterus isn’t for rent at any price.

By Tracey Folly — Written on Aug 11, 2023

I am child-free by choice. There is nothing about carrying and raising a child that appeals to me.

So when my best friend and his partner approached me to ask whether I would serve as a surrogate for their baby, the answer was clear.

"No," I said. "Thank you for thinking of me, but I can’t carry your baby for you. Good luck finding someone else, though."

My friend and his partner were flabbergasted.

Sure, they understood I didn’t want kids of my own, but this wouldn’t be a kid of my own. They had been certain I’d agree to help them but they were wrong.

"You’d just be carrying it for nine months," they countered. "You wouldn’t really have to do anything. Besides, we’re willing to pay you."

I wouldn’t really have to do anything? It felt like they didn't understand a thing about what a person’s body goes through during pregnancy and childbirth. As far as offering me money, that was the least they could do, but it wasn’t enough.

My uterus isn’t for rent at any price.

I knew that my friend and his partner would have made great parents, but I was not comfortable with the idea of carrying their baby for them.

It was more than just not wanting to put my body through nine months of pregnancy. It was also about not wanting to be responsible for a child I’d then have to give up.

You can’t tell me carrying a baby in my uterus doesn’t make me responsible for it.

No, thank you. Not a chance.

I can’t help but feel like, however much I loved my friend and his partner, it wouldn’t have been fair to them or the child if I acted as their surrogate. It simply wasn’t something I was willing to do, and willingness to serve as someone’s surrogate is certainly one of the most important prerequisites to doing it.

No one should ever feel obligated or pressured into serving as someone else’s surrogate; if they don’t want to do so, their wishes must be respected without question.

We all have our own opinions on surrogacy but no opinion is greater than another person’s bodily autonomy. Our friendship ended for reasons unrelated to their request to use my body as a baby factory, but the fact that our friendship did indeed end just goes to prove I made the right decision.

So despite all of the heartache, I stand firm in my decision. My body, my choice, in every sense of the phrase.

#The friendship ended for reasons unrelated to her saying no.....bs men hate hearing no #Anti surrogacy Sunday #Supposedly Heartwarming stories of altruistic surrogacy is going to create a new generation of men who will expect women to give them kids #anti surrogacy sunday #surrogacy exploits women #They could just adopt #No one is entitled to bio kids #babies are not commodities #Good for her for standing her ground #Nine months of pregnancy and childbirth is not nothing #And then there's months of recovery #Woman says no and the men say we will pay you

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coochiequeens · 11 months

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Ladies, always keep stickers on you

China’s Surrogacy Debate Extends to Women’s Toilets

From universities to hospital toilets, women are finding themselves surrounded by small ads recruiting surrogacy candidates as well as customers. They, and some companies, are hitting back.

By Yang Caini

May 15, 20233-min read #gender#surrogacy

Women in China are covering up surrogacy ads in toilets with stickers and lipstick as they try to discourage other women from becoming surrogates or take up their services.

In late April, a video of an anonymous woman covering up a surrogacy ad with stickers in a women’s bathroom in a hospital in the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region went viral online.

Her actions were widely praised, with netizens sharing similar experiences about covering up surrogacy ads they encounter: “I erased these sorts of ads in the toilet of a movie theater.” “I’ve seen ads like this in dorms and school bathrooms.” “They can be found in all three toilets in a Changsha shopping mall.”

These ads look to recruit surrogates as well as customers. They are usually made up of very few words, with a price and a contact number provided. Many also guarantee a son, the favored sex in China.

Five university students from five different cities told Sixth Tone that they’ve seen the ads “countless times” in toilets. Zhao Yifei, a master’s degree student at Sun Yat-sen University in Guangzhou, said that these ads can be found in almost every toilet on campus. She sometimes feels conflicted when scratching them out with her keys.

“On the one hand, I think (surrogacy) can help those families who cannot conceive because of physical reasons. On the other hand … the most likely result is that the rich use surrogacy in large numbers and exploit the poor,” said Zhao.

Commercial surrogacy is banned in China, together with all sales of gametes, fertilized eggs, and embryos. The prohibition has led to the emergence of black markets and cross-bordersurrogacy services that target infertile and same-sex couples.

Surrogate mothers in China can receive up to 280,000 yuan ($40,282) for their services, while customers reportedly pay up to 1.1 million yuan for a surrogate baby with a chosen sex.

The question of whether to legalize surrogacy in China is a heated debate. In 2017, state-run media People’s Daily published an article that discussed legalizing surrogacy to ease the country’s falling birth rate and help infertile senior couples. Opponents, however, decry the practice for exploiting vulnerable women.

Li, who insisted on only using her surname, has kept a marker pen and anti-surrogacy stickers in her handbag since 2019, when she first erased a surrogacy ad in a shopping mall toilet with her lipstick in her hometown of Zhengzhou, the capital city of the central province of Henan.

“I’m embarrassed to say it, but I was thinking about whether the lipstick can still be used afterwards. But this was only for a few seconds — after all, this matter is much more important than lipstick,” Li, 26, told Sixth Tone.

Afterwards, Li purchased anti-surrogacy stickers in case she ran into the ads again. Some of these stickers mention that they are 30 centimeters long, the same length as a needle used for retrieving a woman’s egg. She hopes this scares women thinking about surrogacy by showing what it will mean in practice.

Some women’s products manufacturers, including sellers of pads and skincare products, are supporting these anti-surrogacy efforts by gifting customers free anti-surrogacy stickers with their purchases.

SISCOM, an online vendor with over 40,000 followers on e-commerce platform Taobao selling feminist merchandise, began giving customers free anti-surrogacy stickers in 2021. “Surrogacy exploits women. It’s banned in China. You will be punished for it,” the stickers read, with a reporting hotline included.

Qiqi, co-owner of SISCOM, told Sixth Tone that she has seen many of these ads herself.

“Sometimes I can’t help but feel that the people who make these ads are so smart … The toilet compartments are so private that you can hardly catch them and ban them,” she said.

Women’s public toilets have been in the news before. In 2020, advocates launched a campaign to install pad-sharing boxes in women’s toilets, which swept across the country.

Editor: Vincent Chow.

#China #anti surrogacy sunday #Anti exploiting women #Babies are not commodities #Stickering #Couples are willing to pay more for a boy #Retrieving eggs uses a needle 30 centimeters long #Surrogacy exploits women. It’s banned in China. You will be punished for it

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coochiequeens · 9 months

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Who the hell looks at a WAR ZONE and thinks that's a good place to start a babies life?

Ukraine, amid war-torn chaos, has emerged as the go-to surrogacy haven for Western couples seeking parenthood. But behind the brave smiles of new parents lies a shadow of corruption, abuse, and economic struggles, calling for a deeper look at the nation’s surrogacy tale.

Ukraine has long been known as a surrogacy hotspot, with a quarter of the world’s surrogate babies born there in 2018. Despite the ongoing war, surrogacy clinics in Kyiv are still attracting foreign couples, including those from Italy, Romania, Germany, and Britain, eager to have a child.

That percentage has likely increased since Moscow banned the practice for foreign couples last year, with Russian lawmakers citing the need to “prevent the trafficking of our children.”

Dark Shadows of Corruption and Abuse

In Ukraine over 1,000 children have been born in Ukraine to surrogate mothers since the start of the Russian invasion, with more than 600 born at the BiotexCom clinic in Kyiv, one of Europe’s largest surrogacy clinics. Pechenoha, one of the staff of Biotexcom said “I have not met a single woman with a good economic situation who has decided to go through this process out of kindness.”

Economic Setbacks and the Call for Women’s Return

However, behind the apparent success of the surrogacy industry, allegations of corruption and abuse have surfaced, raising concerns about the authorities’ protection in both Kiev and Washington. The industry has faced criticism, with some referring to clinics as “children factories” and calling for restrictions on foreign use of Ukrainian surrogate services during periods of martial law.

For the surrogate mothers, financial reasons often drive their decision to carry a child for others, but the process is significantly less joyous.

One Ukrainian woman told Al Jazeera in 2018 that the German firm promised her an apartment for the duration, but forced her to share it with four other pregnant women, and to share a bed for seven months of her pregnancy. Another said that women who left their accommodation and failed to return before a curfew would be subjected to fines, as would women who criticized the company or attempted to communicate with the foreign parents.

“We were treated like cattle and mocked by the doctors,” she said.

Moreover, Ukraine’s economy has faced significant setbacks due to Russia’s invasion, with a staggering 30% contraction in 2022. As a result, Ukraine is pleading to its women to return from abroad to bolster the economy. Bloomberg reported, Ukraine is planning an incentive scheme to call Ukrainian women back into the war-torn nation from Europe.

Owing to the war, many intelligent and talented individuals, particularly young women, have left Ukraine. The exodus of skilled individuals from the country is becoming a hindrance to Ukraine’s economic progress, resulting in the loss of valuable human resources.

However, Ukraine’s focus on encouraging Ukrainian women to return seems surprising, as it appears to be based on misinformation and plain lies. It’s unrealistic to believe that by simply bringing back women, Ukraine wants to generate a revenue of $20 billion.

Now, let’s not forget Ukraine being labeled as a “European hub of Sex Tourism.” Before the Ukraine war, sex tourism in the country was on the rise, attracting foreign visitors seeking sexual activities. Unfortunately, Ukrainian women gained an infamous reputation for engaging in prostitution for meager earnings. Which clears the air and give answers to our questions.

Now, despite the complexities of the surrogacy landscape and the ongoing conflict, Ukraine’s surrogacy clinics have emerged as the top choice since Feb 2022.

It seems like even amid conflict, people are eager to be parents, but with the industry’s reputation for corruption, it’s not just baby bumps that have everyone talking!

#anti surrogacy sunday #surrogacy exploits women #babies are not commodities #Surrogacy in a war zone #ukraine #Surrogacy exploits poor women #Surrogacy agencies fined the surrogates for criticizing the company

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coochiequeens · 5 months

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Sure his wife endangers her health with extra pregnancies but the extra income is nice.

When his wife suggested being a surrogate, he was taken aback. After 3 pregnancies, he gets why she does it.

Pooja Mistry

Nov 6, 2023, 7:50 AM EST

Kyle Hanson's wife told him during dinner that she was thinking about becoming a surrogate.

Initially he was very much against it, but he warmed up to the idea.

Supporting his wife during her three surrogacies made him a better dad, he said.

Kyle Hanson went to dinner with his wife, his sister-in-law, and his sister-in-law's husband, in what he thought was just another family outing. Midway through the meal, his wife, Sunshine Hanson, said, "I'm thinking about being a surrogate."

Kyle Hanson's immediate reaction was confusion and shock. Though the couple had a colleague whose wife was a surrogate, he could not understand why his own wife would want to pursue a similar path.

He was against it initially

"When my wife first mentioned she wanted to be a surrogate, I thought she was nuts, and I was very much against it," Hanson told Insider.

Over time, Hanson started warming up to the idea and moving past his reservations, especially as he started to learn about the mental, physical, and emotional tolls this decision would take on his family.

"I talked to a lot of husbands whose wives are thinking about doing surrogacy, and they're initially really cold to the idea," he said. "Their biggest fear — and mine when I first was approached with the idea — is that being the husband of a surrogate will somehow make you less of a man."

It made him a better father

On the contrary, supporting his wife during her three surrogacy journeys helped him become a better father.

As a self-classified "nontraditional dad" who's parenting an adoptive daughter, his wife's son from a previous relationship, and that son's half sister, Hanson said he wanted his children to move past archaic notions of what a family unit "should" be.

"I now know that family is defined in multiple ways," Hanson added. "Being the husband of a surrogate has made me a 'superfather' who not only is raising my own family but also helping my wife create a family for someone else."

The couple have lost friends over surrogacy

Sunshine Hanson has had three separate surrogacies, resulting in a pair of twins for a gay Australian couple and two children for a heterosexual couple.

Some of the couple's conservative Christian friends and family decided to step away from their relationships with them after learning that Sunshine Hanson was a surrogate for a gay couple. The lack of tolerance by people he once considered close fueled Kyle Hanson to be more accepting and less judgmental. His perspective has shifted and he's an ally. He hopes he's a role model and that his children adopt the same views.

"As a Christian, I didn't have much exposure or understanding of the gay community," he said. "I went along with the process, and after meeting them, I thought that if anyone deserves these babies, it's them. They were the kindest people who made loving parents."

When asked whether he felt an attachment to any of the babies, he said he didn't. Instead, he believes that attachment forms when a person is deeply involved in the raising, nesting, and planning of that child's life and not limited to the physical birth, especially since his sperm was not used for the pregnancies, he said.

Surrogacy has helped them financially

Besides helping out families, Hanson said surrogacy had helped his family financially. Despite their steady jobs, their expenses were high, and surrogacy proved a helpful secondary stream of income. Now the couple have left those jobs to pursue an agency, Surrogacy Is, that matches surrogate candidates to partner agencies and assists prospective surrogates in making educated and safe choices about their journeys.

Hanson aspires to continue educating husbands and partners of surrogates to teach them patience, acceptance, and kindness for people struggling to have children with alternative methods.

"I'm a much, much better person having gone through these surrogacy journeys with my wife," he said. "We're closer. I already knew we were a great team, but this allowed us to show off how strong we were together."

#Anti surrogacy sunday #Surrogacy Is #Surrogacy exploits women #Now Surrogacy advocates are trying to normalize it for men #No one is entitled to biological children

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coochiequeens · 11 months

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Of course it would be a who MAN would try to amend a bill the Child-Parent Security Act (CPSA) to: (1) deny a surrogate child's fundamental human right to know the identity of his or her birth mother; (2) allow the possible removal of the surrogate mother's identity on the child's birth certificate; (3) weaken the CPSA's residency requirements of the surrogate and the intending parent(s); (4) increase highly coercive contract remedies; (5) eliminate certain legal fees coverage for the surrogate in the event of a litigated dispute with the intending parent(s); (6) suggest that gamete providers have parental rights they must relinquish; and (7) loosen the requirements that surrogates must be administered informed consent procedures.

NEW YORK, May 25, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Dozens (and counting) of New York children's and women's rights advocates, including the Coalition Against Trafficking in Women, author and feminist activist Gloria Steinem, medical and public health professionals, surrogate survivors, and members of the LGBTQI+ community signed a letter to the New York State Senate and Assembly leadership detailing their concerns regarding Bill S.5107 introduced by Senator Brad Hoylman-Sigal.

The bill significantly amends the Child-Parent Security Act (CPSA) that legalized reproductive commercial surrogacy in New York. The CPSA was enacted by former Governor Andrew Cuomo in April 2020 as a line item in the 400-page state budget at the height of the COVID-19 emergency in New York. It was never afforded the opportunity of critical public discussions or deliberations.

Although Bill S.5107 is presented to the NYS Senate as a merely technical, "clean up" intervention, it in fact introduces substantive changes that far worsen the positions of children born of surrogacy arrangements, persons providing gametes, and surrogates.

The extensive amendments to the CPSA offered by Bill S.5107 propose to: (1) deny a surrogate child's fundamental human right to know the identity of his or her birth mother; (2) allow the possible removal of the surrogate mother's identity on the child's birth certificate; (3) weaken the CPSA's residency requirements of the surrogate and the intending parent(s); (4) increase highly coercive contract remedies; (5) eliminate certain legal fees coverage for the surrogate in the event of a litigated dispute with the intending parent(s); (6) suggest that gamete providers have parental rights they must relinquish; and (7) loosen the requirements that surrogates must be administered informed consent procedures.

The speed with which the proposed amendment appears to be moving through the New State Senate approval process just a few days before the end of the legislative session is extremely troubling. The signatories of the letter call for open and fair deliberations and discussion on Bill S.5107.

For more information, contact: Wendy Chavkin, MD, MPH [email protected]

Yasmine Ergas, JD [email protected]

Taina Bien-Aimé, Coalition Against Trafficking in Women [email protected]

View original content:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/gloria-steinem-and-dozens-of-new-york-womens-rights-civil-and-human-rights-advocates-express-deep-concern-about-proposed-new-york-senate-bill-on-reproductive-commercial-surrogacy-and-call-for-public-deliberations-301835077.html

SOURCE The Coalition Against Trafficking in Women (CATW)

#anti surrogacy sunday #USA #New York #anti exploiting women #babies are not commodities #Coalition Against Trafficking in Women #Gloria Steinem #Bill S.5107 #Senator Brad Hoylman-Sigal #Child-Parent Security Act (CPSA)

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coochiequeens · 8 days

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The passport is being heldup because not all the checks were satisfactorily completed?

A father says he has been "abandoned" by UK authorities in his attempt to bring his newborn baby back home.

Raj Gill, from Grays, Essex, arrived in Cyprus two days before his son was born by surrogacy on 29 January.

But he is waiting for his child's British passport to be issued and his temporary visa for Cyprus is due to expire on 26 April.

The Home Office said passports were not issued until all checks were "satisfactorily completed".

The office of the Conservative MP for Thurrock, Dame Jackie Doyle-Price, said it had made an "urgent inquiry" with the government over Mr Gill's case.

The 49-year-old said he completed the documentation for his son in the days following the birth, but that "nobody has looked at my application since 12 February".

He said he "desperately" needed to get the 11-week-old back to the UK for immunisations.

'What happens to my children?'

"It's stressful," he said.

"Unfortunately, as there is no-one else to look after [my son], I have no choice but to remain in Cyprus despite knowing that I will be classed as an overstayer from 26 April."

An overstay would mean Mr Gill risks being fined, prosecuted or even jailed.

He added: "If that happens then what happens to my children?"

Mr Gill, who has taught at Lee Chapel Primary School in Basildon for the past 18 years, said he looked to have a baby by surrogacy after not finding a partner.

"Being a primary school teacher myself, I love my children and I thought I wanted some of my own," he said.

The Home Office said it would not comment on individual passport applications, but said additional checks ordinarily take place to confirm a child's nationality, before an emergency travel document is issued.

#UK #cyprus #Anti surrogacy sunday #Surrogacy exploits women #Babies are not commodities #Surrogacy is human trafficking #Why couldn't a man with a steady job find a partner by 49?#Who is going to take care of the baby while he's teaching?

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coochiequeens · 7 months

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Well it is.

The move could make the practice illegal throughout the bloc.

Bridget Ryder

— October 6, 2023

Surrogacy could soon be classified as a form of human trafficking by the EU.

At its meeting on October 5th, the EU parliament’s joint committee on women’s rights and civil liberties added surrogacy to the list of crimes targeted by the bloc’s directive on preventing human trafficking.

The directive, put in place in 2011, is being revised at a crucial moment when parallel legislation on rules recognizing parentage risks facilitating surrogacy within Europe.

Most EU member states have bans on surrogacy in place, but several do permit altruistic surrogacy or simply have not regulated it. On the edges of the EU though, in countries from Ukraine to Georgia, a booming commercial surrogacy industry exists whose clients often come from within the EU. Additionally, Ukraine, well-known for its surrogacy industry, is seeking fast-track entry into the EU.

“By classifying surrogacy as a form of human trafficking, the European Union takes a substantial step toward preventing the exploitation of women’s bodies and the commodification of children,” the European citizen’s initiative One of Us said in a statement. “This marks a significant stride in effectively safeguarding the most vulnerable and actively combating the commodification of human bodies.”

“This decision means that the weakest will be more protected in the European territory and the unborn are closer to being considered as one of us by the EU institutions,” One of Us president Marina Casini added.

She expressed her hope for the comprehensive inclusion of surrogacy in the directive. The amendment did not distinguish between surrogacy arrangements where the surrogate mother is financially compensated and those where she is not offered a financial incentive, meaning all forms of surrogacy would be designated as exploitative.

French MEP François-Xavier Bellamy with the EPP celebrated the approval of the amendment he had brought to the table as a complete ban on surrogacy within the block.

“Nice victory this morning: the proposal that I tabled, with the support of several colleagues, to ban [surrogacy] across the European Union, was adopted by a majority of votes, both right and left, he posted on X. “An essential step for the dignity of the most vulnerable.”

The position on surrogacy was overwhelmingly endorsed by MEPS with 69 votes in favor and 22 abstentions. No one opposed it.

The parliament committee also approved amendments to include the illegal adoption of children from group homes as a form of human trafficking and to ensure that victims of trafficking are not prosecuted for crimes they were forced to commit. It is common for victims of sex trafficking to also be forced to commit other crimes such as robbery.

The committee’s draft negotiating position still has to be approved by the parliament’s plenary before the directive enters trialogue negotiations, but the wide acceptance from the Left and the Right to recognize surrogacy as a form of human trafficking is promising.

#Anti surrogacy sunday #Anti exploiting women #Babies are not commodities #European union #Surrogacy is human trafficking #Ukraine and Georgia have a surrogacy industry

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coochiequeens · 6 months

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Another country with a surrogacy scandal. This time it's the surrogate mothers that are getting jail time.

Four Russian fertility clinic employees and two surrogate mothers have been handed jail sentences of varying lengths as part of the country's first surrogacy investigation, state media reported Friday.

Authorities launched Russia’s first-ever surrogacy probe in 2020 after one of the babies born to a surrogate mother was found dead in an apartment outside Moscow.

Moscow’s Nikulinsky District Court on Friday found the head of the European Surrogacy Center, Vladislav Melnikov, guilty of child trafficking and sentenced him to 19.5 years in prison, according to the news agency RIA Novosti.

Two European Surrogacy Center doctors — embryologist Taras Ashitkov and reproductive endocrinologist Yuliana Ivanova — were sentenced to 17.5 years and 16.5 years in prison respectively on the same charges.

Obstetrician-gynecologist Lilya Panaioti received a sentence of 16 years and three months in prison.

Surrogate mothers Tatiana Blinova and Liliya Valeyeva were sentenced to four years and 10.5 years in prison.

Prosecutors had requested up to 20 years of imprisonment for the defendants. The case was reportedly heard behind closed doors for an undisclosed reason.

Melnikov and Panaioti called the trafficking charges against them “lawless and absurd,” saying it is impossible to sell the children to their own parents, according to RIA Novosti.

A seventh defendant, Konstantin Svitnev, who is the CEO of Russia’s first company to arrange surrogacy programs Rosyurconsulting, was put on a wanted list after fleeing the country.

His associate Roman Yemashev, interpreter Kirill Anisimov and courier Valentina Chernsyshova received prison sentences of 5-6 years after taking a plea deal with investigators.

Russia is one of a handful of countries where commercial surrogacy is legal.

Lawmakers moved to ban surrogacy for non-Russian couples last year following increasing warnings that wealthy foreigners were exploiting Russian women and children.

President Vladimir Putin signed a law banning foreigners from having children with the help of a surrogate in Russia in December 2022.

#Russia #Anti surrogacy sunday #Babies are not commodities #Surrogacy exploits women #European Surrogacy Center #Human trafficking #Rosyurconsulting #Konstantin Svitnev fled his country

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