7 Frequent Questions Our Surrogacy Agency is Getting

Posted on April 27, 2023May 17, 2023 by Anna Sukhanova

1.How long does it take to find a surrogate mother?

Currently there is a serious shortage of surrogate mothers in Georgia. The war in Ukraine has increased the demand for surrogacy and the available surrogates are not able to meet the demand. In many cases you are likely to face a very long waiting period. On the other hand, we at Pons Medical will be able to match you with a suitable surrogate in less than 2 months because we recruit our surrogates in Armenia where there is less demand for surrogacy programs. You will also be able to make your surrogacy journey in Armenia, with local surrogate mothers.

2. Do I get to choose the surrogate mother?

In accordance with the terms of our contract, you will have the opportunity to approve or reject a particular surrogate mother candidate. However, if you reject the surrogate we have proposed, you may face unnecessary delays. All our surrogate mother candidates have passed medical and psychological tests and are approved by the medical coordinator. They are exceptionally fertile women with good health and previous healthy pregnancies and children.

3. How many attempts will it take to get a pregnancy?

In many cases we achieve pregnancy after only one attempt. First of all, it is important to remember that an attempt is basically an embryo transfer, i.e. the transfer of the blastocysts created during the fertilization procedure to the intended mother’s uterus. In our programs, we include at least three embryo transfers as part of our most popular package (Silver Program). Some other couples will be successful after two or three attempts, but in 90% of cases a pregnancy is achieved in 3 attempts or less. This success rate is relevant as long as we transfer two embryos per transfer, and the numbers are even better when we do genetic testing on the embryos (PGT-A), which tells us beforehand which embryos are viable and which are not.

4. What happens if my surrogate mother has a miscarriage?

Miscarriages are not common, but they do occur in about 10% of cases, and almost 100% of them occur during the first 12 weeks of pregnancy. Miscarriages are emotionally painful for both the surrogate and the intended parents. In most cases, miscarriages do not have any risks or long-term consequences for the surrogate, everything is resolved quickly and painlessly, and the surrogate can return to the program after a few weeks. If the intended parents have embryos available, we simply repeat the embryo transfer. Some intended parents experience a psychological setback after a miscarriage. We encourage these intended parents to persevere and to trust the processes of life. Not all pregnancies will be successful. However, in many cases this is a natural mechanism to prevent unhealthy embryos from developing.

5. How can I be sure that my baby will be healthy?

Thanks to the rapid development of genetics and reproductive medicine, several methods are now available to help us prevent unhealthy children. One of these methods is the genetic testing of embryos before implantation, known as PGS (Pre-implantation Genetic Screening) or PGT (Pre-implantation Genetic Testing). This test allows us to know in advance which embryos are euploid and which are not. Euploid embryos are those without chromosomal abnormalities. If an embryo is euploid, a wide range of diseases and syndromes are discarded, including Down’s syndrome, Klinefelter’s syndrome, Patau’s syndrome, Edwards’ syndrome, etc.

Another way to prevent unhealthy babies is based on the analysis of cell-free fetal DNA (cffDNA) of the developing fetus. This type of test is called non-invasive prenatal testing (NIPT), which is used to diagnose fetal trisomies. Examples of these tests are: Harmony, Panorama and NIFTY. Although NIPT does not detect a wide range of genetic diseases compared to PGT, it is still useful if you did not have the opportunity to perform PGT immediately after the IVF procedure. The syndromes detected are Down syndrome (trisomy 21), Edwards syndrome (trisomy 18) and Patau syndrome (trisomy 13).

6. Can the surrogate mother keep the baby after the birth?

The short answer is no. The regulations of Armenia and Georgia do not give any parental rights to the surrogate mother. Compared to the regulations of other countries such as Ukraine, where the surrogate mother retains the right to keep the baby, this possibility does not exist in Armenia and Georgia.

7. Will the surrogate or the donors be mentioned on the birth certificate?

The birth certificate issued by the civil registry of Armenia and Georgia does not mention the surrogate mother or any sperm or egg donor used in the surrogacy process.

Surrogacy in Israel

Posted on April 10, 2020May 17, 2023 by Anna Sukhanova

Israel is a country, where Bible formula “be fruitful and multiply” works in the best way. Traditional values, such as creation of family and having children, combined with the modern technologies, which make possible to become parents even in the most difficult cases of infertility, create extremely good legal and medical base for IVF and surrogacy treatment here. Israel will be for a very long time the leading country in infertility treatment with the best specialists and the biggest amount of IVF cycles per year per population. First of all, because of the government policy and support for anybody, who have desire to create a family.

Is surrogacy legal in Israel?

Agreements for the Carriage of Fetuses Law (Approval of Agreement and Status of the New Born), 5756-1996 and Amendment 2 to it made in 2018 are the main legal acts which regulate access to surrogacy in Israel.

According to the Law, surrogacy is considered as an infertility treatment due to strict medical indications for heterosexual married couples or single women, residing in Israel. In both cases there should be a genetic link to at least one of the parents (in case of married couple to the Intended Father, in case of single woman to herself only, it is not possible to use donor’s oocytes for single woman).

Only gestational surrogacy is allowed here. It is mentioned, that the surrogate mother should not receive money as a compensation for her services. However, she has right for full remuneration due to the time, dedicated to surrogacy process, all medical expenses, expenses for closes and lost income during pregnancy. The amount of money she can get according to surrogacy contract, signed with the Intended Parents, should be preliminary confirmed by special state Committee (Approval Board).

What is the Approval Board?

Approval Board is created in Israel as a special body that has different representatives in its structure, such as specialists in gynecology and obstetrician, specialist of general medicine, psychologist, social worker, representative of the religious community of the parties and representative of government (specialist in law).

Legal status of Intended Parents (marriage, residence) is not the only one requirement for surrogacy. Their age should be between 18 and 54 (in some specific cases can be prolonged by the decision of the Approval Board). The Members of the Approval Board will also check their medical and mental status, their psychological readiness to undergo surrogacy process, will check if they are fully informed about the legal details of the process and if they are not prosecuted either in Israel or abroad. Usually the Approval Board gives its conclusion about surrogacy cases which take place on the territory of Israel. Nevertheless, sometimes it can also make a decision about surrogacy abroad if it is needed due to medical reasons.

It is forbidden to undergo surrogacy programs without the preliminary hearing in the Approval Board, as well as to make surrogacy programs in the IVF centers not authorized by the government. It can become a reason of prosecution and even imprisonment of the Intended Parents.

Who is a surrogate mother in Israel?

There are no requirements about her residence status, but there is a requirement about her religion. Surrogate mother should have the same religion (Judaism), as the Intended Mother not to create confessional conflicts after the baby is born. According to Judaism the baby gets his/her religion from the mother, who gave birth to this baby.

Read more about surrogacy and religion in our Blog!

It is recommended that the surrogate mother is single (widowed, divorced), conceived and gave birth to at least one her own healthy child and she is in the age from 22 to 39 years old. She also should not be a relative of the Intended Parents and have not more than 4 deliveries in total with not more than 2 fetus per pregnancy. Besides, it should has already passed at least one year since the last delivery.

In some cases, the Approval Board can give their acceptance to have a married woman as a surrogate, but they need to get an approval from her husband before the signature of the contract.

It can be done not more than 6 embryo-transfers to the same surrogate mother until she is pregnant. Not more than two surrogacy births can be given by the same surrogate mother.

Egg donation and PGD testing

As a rule, egg donors are anonymous in Israel. Their cells can be used by the infertile Intended Mother due to medical reasons only, approved by the doctor. In some cases, egg donor can be known (only after such decision is taken by the Approval Board).

There are two types of egg donors in Israel. First is “a volunteer donor”, who is a woman with good health conditions, 21-35 years old. Second is “a treated donor”, who is a woman undergoing IVF treatment by herself and is willing to give her oocytes to another couple. Both types of egg donors cannot be relatives of the Intended Parents. A volunteer donor should also be single (not married).

Financial compensation for egg donors is plain for everybody and established by the government. One donor cannot make more than three donation cycles (with the time gap at least 180 days between the cycles).

A donor may request that some of the eggs extracted from her body be frozen for future use by her or submitted for research. The number of eggs in such a case will be 20% of the number of eggs extracted from the body or two eggs, whichever is lower.

PGD testing can also be used here, due to the medical indications only.

Who are recognized as legal parents of the baby?

At the end of the fifth month of the surrogate mother’s pregnancy the Intended Parents are obliges to notify the authorities about the approximate date of her delivery. The social worker should be present during the delivery of the surrogate mother and will organize the transfer of the baby to the residency of Intended Parents. In such a way the authorities are checking social and living conditions for baby, protecting his/her best interests.

After that the Intended Parents should fill the documents to get the parental order in the Court that will give them their full parental rights. Once the parental order is obtained, the Intended Parents are recognized as legal parents of the child and transfer to him/her their nationality.

Post-birth support

Israel residents have right to get financial support from the government in the end of surrogacy process regardless the country where the program was performed. Parents are eligible for the hospitalization expenses coverage, even if the baby was born abroad. The difference is that in one case the government pays directly to the Maternity House and in another case Parents should show receipts from the hospital situated abroad to claim some funds back.

Moreover, the Intended Parents are entitled to get grants after the baby’s birth as well as get a birth and parenthood period from their place of work.

Surrogacy in Israel is a very interesting topic, however, we cannot recommend this country for our international clients, who are searching for options abroad due to the legal requirements.

At the same time, we are happy to inform you that the experience of Israel’s IVF specialists can be find not only in Israel, but also in Belarussian-Israel clinic we work with.

Contact us today to get more information about our surrogacy programs in Belarus we have for foreigners!

Surrogacy in Europe. Is surrogacy in Portugal legal?

Posted on April 9, 2020May 17, 2023 by Anna Sukhanova

Surrogacy in Portugal is one of the most controversial topics during already almost 15 years. From one side the government voted for quite friendly legislation, from the other side all these initiatives were abolished by the Constitutional Court as contravening the Constitution.

Usage of assisted reproductive technologies as a way of infertility treatment is regulated in Portugal by Law 32/2006 dated 26.07.2006, Law 25/2016 dated 22.08.2016, which has made changes to the Law 32/2006 related to surrogacy provisions, and Regulatory Decree 6/2017 dated 31.07.2017 that regulates procedural issues of surrogacy.

Who is able to use surrogacy in Portugal?

According to provisions of these normative acts, it is possible to use gestational surrogacy in Portugal for both Portuguese and foreign citizens in case they have strict medical indications for it, for example in case of absence of the uterus or any other diseases of this organ, that enables a woman to carry a child (if it is a same-sex couple, both women should be medically unable to carry a baby). Surrogacy services are understood here as a way of treatment and help from woman to woman, so it is possible to use only in altruistic from for heterosexual and homosexual female couples. These services are not available for single parents (both male and female), as well as for homosexual male couples, as they are not able to carry babies a priori.

Any payments to surrogate mother are prohibited here and can cause penalties or even 2 years of imprisonment for Intended Parents. The same situation is with intermediary activity (work of agencies) or performing surrogacy program in any other center that one that was authorized by authorities, all these is forbidden.

What is the procedure?

According to the Regulatory Decree 6/2017, all couples intended to use surrogacy services in Portugal should send their medical and legal documents to the National Council of Medically Assisted Procreation of Portugal according to a specific list and to get their authorization for surrogacy contract conclusion. Moreover, there should be some kind of “draft form” of surrogacy contract with its essential provisions protecting rights of each side of the contract. The procedure of getting such kind of authorization can take from 3 to 6 months.

Unconstitutional provisions

At the same time, ruling no. 225/2018 of the Constitutional Court of 24 April 2018 declared unconstitutional some rules of the Law of PMA regarding surrogacy (Law 25/2016), which led the CNPMA (National Council of Medically Assisted Procreation of Portugal) to declare as extinct all the then underway processes of authorization to conclude surrogacy contracts. So, currently this procedure doesn’t work.

Regarding donor’s oocytes, previously all donors were anonymous, but later the Constitutional Court decided that their personal data should be available due to the right of children to know their identity. Currently all children born from donor’s gametes have the right to request their personal data from breeding centers when they reach the age of 18 years old. This provision makes process of donor’s searching much longer and more expensive, as not all donors are ready to be non-anonymous.

In July 2019, the Assembly of the Republic approved a new legislative initiative which, in the process of preventive inspection of constitutionality, was once again declared unconstitutional in two provisions, which led the President of the Republic to return the Decree to the Assembly of the Republic, without promulgation.

Is surrogacy in Portugal legal or not?

In conclusion, for the moment there is no legal framework that regulates surrogacy in Portugal, so the practice of this technique is not legal.

Portuguese citizens should find options abroad for their infertility treatment, until the surrogacy law is established. We want to encourage you to learn more about our surrogacy programs in Belarus.

Don’t hesitate contacting us if you have any further questions, we will be happy to help!

IVF and surrogacy tourism in Europe. Surrogacy in Armenia

Posted on March 6, 2020May 17, 2023 by [email protected]

Tourist? Medical tourist!

Lastly medical tourism became so popular and important direction of tourism, that almost all countries of modern Europe are trying to get into this interesting niche and suggest the best they can in the field of medical services. Stem cells therapies, organ transplantation, cancer treatment, IVF treatment, plastic surgery and even dentistry are fighting for international clients nowadays. And it is quite understandable, because first of all, not all this practices are allowed in the country of the patient’s origin and secondly, the difference in price for treatment and medications can be perceivable.

All this makes such trips abroad for treatment very attractive for international patients from both economical and medical point of view. Such trips are frequently associated by patients with their last hope to succeed in their treatment.

We, as a company, that works with International patients with infertility, want to share our experience about the level of the medical services, provided in few popular destinations for IVF treatment and surrogacy.

All information in this article should be considered as our personal opinion, based on our own experience and cannot be taken by anybody as the absolute truth. But we really believe that for somebody who is searching for the best options of treatment this knowledge could be quite helpful.

Surrogacy in Armenia

Location for European tourists: 6 from 10

IVF and Surrogacy: allowed commercial

Egg Donors: allowed, anonymous

Requirements for couples for Surrogacy: only married heterosexual couples

Transparency of the clinic’s work: 7 from 10

Medical facilities and technology available: 7 from 10

Maternity houses and NICU departments: 8 from 10

Maternal mortality rate: 25 deaths per 100,000 live births

Children’s mortality rate (infants under-5): 12.4 per 1000 live births

Corruption level: Low

Epidemiological situation in the country: Average

One more country we want to talk about within the topic is Armenia. Armenia is a small country close to Georgia that has also allowed commercial surrogacy for foreigners. At the same time this destination remains popular for IVF treatment and surrogacy only for its own ex-citizens, who moved to live abroad long time ago, or for Russian tourists due to economic reasons, because compensation for surrogate mothers is much lower here than in Ukraine, Russia or Georgia.

Meanwhile, it doesn’t mean that there are less requirements to the surrogates. On the contrary, fertility clinics in Armenia are quite strict and it is very difficult to get approval to be as a surrogate mother. Moreover, Armenian legislation has certain restrictions for women who want to become surrogates, for example their age should be from 18 to 35 or the rule that one woman cannot be a surrogate more than two times.

Parental rights

Egg donation is allowed here, donors are anonymous. Neither the surrogate mother nor the donor have parental rights over the baby born via surrogacy. The surrogacy agreement should be signed with the surrogate mother prior to the embryo-transfer in the Armenian notary. After the baby is born, one more step is needed: it is a DNA-testing, that according to Armenian legislation should be done prior the baby’s registration.

Usually it takes from 5 to 10 working days to receive results of such tests. This will guarantee the genetic link between the baby born via surrogacy and at least one of the Intended Parents and will be a reason for its registration in the civil registry office of Armenia. In case the genetic link will not be established, the couple will need to undergo court hearing, that could take quite long time here (up to 6 moths).

On the other side, if the Consulate of the government of origin of the Intended Parents usually requires to undergo genetic test, such regulation as in Armenia could be even useful, because there will be no doubts that the baby is genetically related to at least one of the parents.

Citizenship of the baby

On the contrary to Georgia, Armenia is not ready to grant their citizenship for babies born through surrogacy. That’s why we strongly recommend you to get a consultation from your own country if they will be able to recognize such babies as their citizens and give passports for them for going home through the border.

However, nothing is impossible. Armenian government is ready to solve this problem on the case by case basis, but be ready that it can take from 6 months to one year to get such decision.

Medical facilities in Armenia do not differ so much from others, for example from Ukraine or Georgia. Although medical staff here is high-educated and very helpful. We believe that the country is underrated among other IVF/Surrogacy destinations and in future will only improve its positions.

Contact us by e-mail to know more about surrogacy in Armenia!

IVF and Surrogacy tourism in Europe. Destination: Georgia

Posted on March 5, 2020May 17, 2023 by [email protected]

Tourist? Medical tourist!

Today we are going to talk about Georgia, one of the most popular destinations for IVF and surrogacy in Europe.

Surrogacy in Georgia

Location for European tourists: 7 from 10

IVF and Surrogacy: allowed commercial

Egg Donors: allowed, not anonymous

Requirements for couples for Surrogacy: heterosexual couples, not necessary in legal marriage

Transparency of the clinic’s work: 5 from 10

Medical facilities and technology available: 7 from 10

Maternity houses and NICU departments: 7 from 10

Maternal mortality rate: 36 deaths per 100,000 live births

Children’s mortality rate (infants under-5): 9.8 per 1000 live births

Corruption level: Low

Epidemiological situation in the country: Bad

Georgia is one of the most promoted IVF and Surrogacy destinations for international tourists along with Ukraine and Russia. There is a huge amount of infertility clinics here, that are ready to offer you not only IVF treatment, but frequently even surrogacy programs under one roof, working in the same fashion as agencies.

Even though Georgia is geographically situated outside Europe, the policy of the government, as well as mentality of people, is oriented to the European standards and values of the EU. European patients coming to Georgia for treatment would be surprised seeing here flags of European Union almost everywhere.

Georgia is widely opened for international couples (not necessary married), who want to undergo IVF treatment or use services of the surrogate mother overseas. There are always medical requirements for surrogacy, however, clinics in Georgia are quite flexible.

Commercial surrogacy and egg/sperm donation

For example, age of woman after 45 is already considered here as a reason to have a surrogate mother. Furthermore, commercial surrogacy is totally legal here and surrogate mother has no parental rights over the babies born via surrogacy, so the Intended parents will be written in the birth certificate of the baby from the very beginning, without any mentioning about surrogacy.

Egg/sperm donation is also allowed here. This is the only one country that allows non anonymous donation, so you can even meet your egg donor in person. Moreover, donors are obliged to sign a notarized contract with the Intended Parents prior to any medical treatment, so you can be sure that it is really the donor you have chosen will donate you their reproductive cells.

Citizenship of the baby

The infertility clinics will not check the genetic link of the baby to his/hers Intended Parents. Although, we recommend you to ask about the procedure of the citizenship and passport obtaining in the Consulate of the country of your origin before having a baby via surrogacy not genetically related to you, because many countries require DNA-test (genetic link) before granting citizenship for such babies.

Nonetheless, Georgia is always ready to help and to give Georgian citizenship to babies, who couldn’t obtain citizenship in the country of origin of his/her parents. This is one of the biggest advantages in the Georgian legislation, that opens this country for patients, who usually have problems with their own Consulates, for example, Spanish citizens.

Read more about Surrogacy in Spain in our blog!

Current situation

All these provisions have made Georgia very attractive for patients from all over the world, that lastly cause lack of the surrogate mothers. Indeed, Georgia is not so big country as Russia or even Ukraine, and, to tell the truth, the reproductive health of Caucasian women usually is not so good as of Slavic ones.

At some point, attending so huge amount of International couples, there appeared one big problem to find a surrogate mother, so many couples who have surrogacy programs in Georgia are recently obliged to wait for quite long time until someone ready to help appears.

The other inconveniences appeared lastly because of sudden changes in the Georgian legislation, when new rules of notarization of the Powers of attorney were introduced and all previous PoAs given prior to these changes became irrelevant.

Last changes

Other indispensable condition introduced by the government was a provision about necessity to sign surrogacy contract with the donor and the surrogate mother before the fertilization is done. It means, that if the Intended parents didn´t have enough luck to succeed from the first or second attempt (the surrogate mother didn’t become pregnant after several embryo-transfers) and they need to change a surrogate mother due to any medical/social or other reason, they cannot do this, or they will be not able to register a baby later.

The same situation appears in case the couple wants to send embryos from abroad, because such embryos are created before the contract with the surrogate mother is signed. Unfortunately, in such cases according to new regulation Intended parents will need to undergo the court hearing, that lasts approximately three months after the rejection of the civil registry in Georgia to register a baby.

All these new changes became a reason why Georgia started to lose its high position on the International IVF and Surrogacy tourism market. It is evident that the Georgian government is trying to make the legal procedure for Surrogacy more difficult than it was before. Although, this destination is still very popular among many international patients.

At the same time, we would like you to pay attention to the very high level of Maternal and Children’s mortality rate in this country in comparison with other countries who offer surrogacy services. We believe that this is a very important indicator for Intended Parents who didn’t take a decision yet which country to go to.

Still have questions about Surrogacy in Georgia? Read in our blog!

IVF and Surrogacy Tourism in Europe. Albania.

Posted on March 4, 2020May 17, 2023 by [email protected]

Tourist? Medical tourist!

Surrogacy in Albania

Location for European tourists: 10 from 10

IVF and Surrogacy: not regulated

Egg Donors: not regulated

Requirements for couples for Surrogacy: not regulated

Transparency of the clinic’s work: 5 from 10

Medical facilities and technology available: 5 from 10

Maternity houses and NICU departments: 5 from 10

Maternal mortality rate: 29 deaths per 100,000 live births

Children’s mortality rate (infants under-5): 8.8 per 1000 live births

Corruption level: High

Epidemiological situation in the country: Average

A completely new and growing destination of medical tourism is IVF and Surrogacy tourism in Albania. Lastly in Internet numerous surrogacy agencies appeared, that are offering such services for European tourists. However, investigating the legal background of such activity, we didn’t come to any final conclusion about legality of this kind of treatment. Moreover, lack of information about practical implementation of such procedures raise reasonable doubts in transparency of work of clinics and agencies, who offer surrogacy programs there.

Legislation

The only one mentioning about surrogacy in Albanian legislation appears in article 261 of the Family Code, where it is written that surrogacy adoption applies for the same rules, as adoption in general. From this statement, we can make a conclusion that in the end of any surrogacy program an adoption procedure is needed, which includes obtaining of the Adoption Committee’s consent for the adoption and the court hearing.

This will not give ability for families who have used surrogacy services to travel home very fast after the baby’s birth. Besides, the adoption of a child (it doesn’t matter if the baby is born via surrogacy or not) is possible by spouses, one of the spouses with the written consent of the other spouse or by individuals. It will be not possible to adopt a baby by same-sex couple or a couple without marriage, because Albanian authorities adhere to the principle of best child’s interests and they do not consider such couples as stable families for children’s growth and development.

The other problem is that there are no other provisions about surrogacy in Albanian legislation at all. The Law on Reproductive health is also written in a very general way and doesn’t have clear provisions even about the egg donation. Despite this fact, a lot of IVF clinics provide such services as IVF with egg donation and surrogacy in Albania due to the parents’ requests.

Be aware

The only one document, that will regulate relationships between the Intended Parents and the Surrogate mother is the surrogacy agreement. Nevertheless, it is not clear if such agreement could be enforced in future, for example if the surrogate mother decides to keep the baby. Furthermore, as there is no established procedure for obtaining the birth certificate in case of the birth of baby via surrogacy, we can only presume that the civil birth certificate is given on the name of the woman, who delivered a baby (the surrogate mother), and either on the name of the genetic father of the child, either on the name of the surrogate’s spouse.

We strongly recommend you to contact lawyer in Albania before undergoing surrogacy program there due to numerous legal gaps. We believe that it is very important clearly understand the whole process step by step before taking a decision to have any kind of infertility treatment abroad.

Have more questions? Contact us via e-mail!

IVF and Surrogacy tourism in Europe. Surrogacy in Greece.

Posted on March 2, 2020May 17, 2023 by [email protected]

Tourist? Medical tourist!

Today we want to talk about Greece.

Surrogacy in Greece

Location for European tourists: 10 from 10

IVF and Surrogacy: allowed

Egg Donors: allowed/anonymous, altruistic donors

Requirements for couples for Surrogacy: married or unmarried heterosexual couples, single women (in both cases woman should not be more than 50 y.o.), possible only altruistic surrogacy, agreement needs pre-approval in the Court

Transparency of the clinic’s work: 10 from 10

Medical facilities and technology available: 10 from 10

Maternity houses and NICU departments: 10 from 10

Maternal mortality rate: 3 deaths per 100,000 live births

Children’s mortality rate (infants under-5): 4.5 per 1000 live births

Corruption level: Low

Epidemiological situation in the country: Good

Greece is one of the most popular tourists’ destinations in the world and is widely known not only as a resort, but also as a competitive location for IVF treatment and surrogacy in Europe. Surrogacy is allowed here from 2002 for local citizens and from 2014 – for foreigners, that have made Greece very attractive for EU-citizens, who has ability to travel home with their babies immediately after their surrogacy program is finished.

Please, be aware that surrogacy is allowed only to applicants or surrogate mothers who have their permanent residence in Greece.

Who can apply for surrogacy in Greece?

Surrogacy services are available here for both married and not married heterosexual couples and single women under 50 y.o. All agreements should be altruistic and get approval in the Court before any embryo-transfer is done to the Surrogate mother´s body. Such court hearing should be initiated by the Intended Mother, as such services as surrogacy could be given only from one woman to another. The trial usually takes here up to 8 months.

Despite the altruistic character of surrogacy agreements, the Surrogate mother is entitled to receive compensation for her travelling expenditures, medicines and work losses during pregnancy that in total should not exceed 10.000 euros.

There is a possibility to use egg/sperm donor’s cells for Infertility treatment here, as well as embryo-donation, because Greek legislation does not require genetic link to the Intended Parents. All these services also should be altruistic. Neither the surrogate mother, nor the egg donor have parental rights over the babies born via surrogacy.

Is adoption needed?

Intended Parents appear in all legal documents as parents of the babies born via surrogacy from the very beginning, because their parental rights are already recognized by Greek Court decision, that approved surrogacy agreement. So no need to undergo adoption or any other procedure in the end of the surrogacy program. Be aware, that according to Greek legislation babies are entitled to get Greek citizenship only if one the parents (in our case intended mother or intended father) is Greek.

Therefore it is necessary to be sure that the country of your origin will recognize such babies as its citizens before the surrogacy process starts, especially if you are going to use donation services.

No need to emphasize that the high quality of medical services in Greek clinics thanks to strict European standards. At the same time, having the most liberal legislation about assisted reproductive technologies and surrogacy, Greek clinics have not very high prices for treatment comparable with other European countries.

On the other side, any intermediary activity is surrogacy field (such as agencies or recruiters of surrogate mothers), as well as advertising of surrogacy is prohibited in Greece and can cause criminal sanctions for participants from 1.500 euro fine to 2 years of imprisonment. This can cause some difficulties in the surrogacy journey of the Intended Parents, as according to Greek legislation they will need to find and to attend their surrogate mother by themselves.

Still don’t know how to choose country for your surrogacy program? Read in our blog!

IVF and surrogacy tourism in Europe. Surrogacy in Belarus

Posted on March 1, 2020May 17, 2023 by [email protected]

Tourist? Medical tourist!

More destinations!

We are continuing to share our thoughts about the most popular destinations for surrogacy in Europe. Today we want to share our impression about Belarus.

IVF and surrogacy tourism in Belarus

Location for European tourists: 10 from 10

IVF and Surrogacy: allowed

Egg Donors: allowed/anonymous donors

Requirements for couples for Surrogacy: married heterosexual couples, single women with their own oocytes

Transparency of the clinic’s work: 10 from 10

Medical facilities and technology available: 8 from 10

Maternity houses and NICU departments: Public hospitals, 8 from 10

Maternal mortality rate: 4 deaths per 100,000 live births

Children’s mortality rate (infants under-5): 3.4 per 1000 live births

Corruption level: Low

Epidemiological situation in the country: Average

One more unjustly forgotten destination for IVF treatment and surrogacy in Europe is Belarus. The country, that has the most valuable and professional medical staff and much better quality of such medical facilities as public hospitals and maternity houses among all ex-soviet countries, unfortunately, has not so good promotion as Russia or Ukraine. At the same time, this country has surrogacy friendly legislation, that allows to use help of surrogate mother not only for heterosexual married couples, but also for single women (if they are able to produce their own oocytes). In Belarus reasons for surrogacy are checked quite strictly, according to specific list of medical indications, approved by the government, and surrogate mother can be only married woman.

Regrettably, couples from countries, that require single surrogate mother (due to the Consulate process) will not be able to have surrogacy program here.

Special requirements for donors and surrogates

At the same time, you can be sure, that your surrogate mother in Belarus is healthy, has no problems with police and living in normal social conditions, because all this is checked here before entering the program. Egg donors in Belarus are anonymous and they also undergo double-checking before giving their oocytes to the Intended Parents. This is the only country, that requires to pass analyses for egg donors after half of year, because the incubation period of such dangerous diseases, as HIV/AIDS or Hepatitis A/B or Syphilis, varies from 2 to 6 months since the contagion.

Unlike Russia, surrogate mother, as well as donor of oocytes, cannot claim any parental rights over the children born via surrogacy. The legal birth certificate given by civil registry office in Belarus contains only the information about the Intended Parents, without any mentioning about surrogacy process. Moreover, Intended Mother appears also in the Medical certificate of birth, that is quite unique, because in other countries there is usually written the surrogate mother, as a woman, who delivered a baby. In Belarus surrogacy process is considered as a treatment, so all medical and government institutions will help Intended Parents to keep the process in secret (here for surrogacy applies the same rules as for doctor-patient confidentiality).

The situation in the country

Coming to Belarus for treatment or documents obtaining, you can be sure that no one will press you to pay some additional money, because level of corruption here is very low. This country is oriented to achieve high level of medical care, not just taking money from foreigners. In Belarus there is one of the lowest rates of mothers’/infants’ mortality in the world.

Investigating about medical facilities in Belarus and visiting several clinics there, we were surprised finding really European standards of quality with much less prices for treatment. Belarussian medical school is highly valued among foreign countries. For the moment this destination for IVF/Surrogacy tourism is widely used mostly by Russian citizens (in our opinion, because of lack of promotion among the English-speaking population), but we believe, that European couples suffering from infertility could also benefit from the advantages of treatment in Belarus. We encourage you to investigate more about this country, it’s abilities and opportunities for treatment.

Read more about Belarussian clinic we work with here.

Learn more information about surrogacy programs in Belarus!

IVF and Surrogacy tourism in Europe. Destination: Russia

Posted on February 29, 2020May 17, 2023 by [email protected]

Tourist? Medical tourist!

Lastly medical tourism became so popular and important direction of tourism, that almost all countries of modern
Europe are trying to get into this interesting niche and suggest the best they can in the field of medical services. Stem cells therapies, organ transplantation, cancer treatment, IVF treatment, plastic surgery and even dentistry are fighting for international clients nowadays. And it is quite understandable, because first of all, not all this practices are allowed in the country of the patient’s origin and secondly, the difference in price for treatment and medications can be perceivable. All this makes such trips abroad for treatment very attractive for international patients from both economical and medical point of view. Such trips are frequently associated by patients with their last hope to succeed in their treatment.

Today we are going to put some light about surrogacy tourism in Russia.

IVF and Surrogacy tourism in Russia

Location for European tourists: 9 from 10

IVF and Surrogacy: allowed

Egg Donors: allowed/both anonymous and not anonymous donors (if you
bring egg donor with you)

Requirements for couples for Surrogacy: married heterosexual couples,
single women

Transparency of the clinic’s work: 5 from 10

Medical facilities and technology available: 5 from 10

Maternity houses and NICU departments: Public hospitals, 3 from 10

Maternal mortality rate: 25 deaths per 100,000 live births

Children’s mortality rate (infants under-5): 7.2 per 1000 live births

Corruption level: High

Epidemiological situation in the country: Bad

The other attractive destination for IVF and Surrogacy abroad for patients from Europe is Russia. Surrogacy friendly legislation, big variety of egg donors (from Slavic to Asian appearance) and possibility to use commercial surrogacy not very far from home brings many couples to Russian fertility clinics from all over the Europe. Even though the medical facilities in Russia have almost the same conditions than in Ukraine, the legislation allows to use commercial surrogacy not only for heterosexual couples in legal marriage, but also for single women, who are not able to carry a baby according to the medical indications. According to Russian legislation these women can even get the embryo-donation from another couple This is one of the biggest advantages of Russian legislation, because almost nowhere in the world single woman can apply for surrogacy and get the baby without genetic link to her.

Nevertheless, it must be noted that in such case the Сonsulate of the Intended Mother’s origin can reject baby’s recognition and most probably will not give citizenship and passport for this baby for travelling home.

Want to know about surrogacy in Ukraine? Read here!

Be aware

Another thing you should be aware of, is that in Russia the surrogate mother has right to keep the baby after birth, because she is considered to be a mother of a baby until the legal birth certificate on the name of parents issued (done only after her notarized agreement). In other countries, where commercial surrogacy is widely used, a surrogate mother has no such rights.

As far as we could understand from news about surrogacy process in Russia, the level of corruption is also quite high in this country. For example, there are a lot of agencies in Internet, that offer surrogacy tourism services for single men in Russia, that in principle should be not possible, because in the end of the program these parents will not be able to register a baby in civil office and such babies will be in some kind of “legal limbo” until the court decision is obtained. However, such trials are not always decided in favor of the complainants.

Read more about other popular surrogacy destinations in our blog!

IVF and Surrogacy tourism in Europe. Destination: Ukraine

Posted on February 28, 2020May 17, 2023 by [email protected]

Tourist? Medical tourist!

Lastly medical tourism became so popular and important direction of tourism, that almost all countries of modern Europe are trying to get into this interesting niche and suggest the best they can in the field of medical services. Stem cells therapies, organ transplantation, cancer treatment, IVF treatment, plastic surgery and even dentistry are fighting for international clients nowadays. And it is quite understandable, because first of all, not all this practices are allowed in the country of the patient’s origin and secondly, the difference in price for treatment and medications can be perceivable. All this makes such trips abroad for treatment very attractive for international patients from both economical and medical point of view. Such trips are frequently associated by patients with their last hope to succeed in their treatment.

Today we are going to talk about one of the most popular destinations for IVF treatment and surrogacy in Europe – Ukraine.

IVF and Surrogacy tourism in Ukraine

Location for European tourists: 10 from 10

IVF and Surrogacy: allowed

Egg Donors: allowed/anonymous donors

Requirements for couples for Surrogacy: only married heterosexual couples

Transparency of the clinic’s work: 5 from 10

Medical facilities and technology available: 5 from 10

Maternity houses and NICU departments: Public hospitals, 3 from 10

Maternal mortality rate: 24 deaths per 100,000 live births

Children’s mortality rate (infants under-5): 8.7 per 1000 live births

Corruption level: High

Epidemiological situation in the country: Bad

Ukraine is a very popular destination for IVF and surrogacy tourism among European clients. Public perception of Ukraine as of the country with European standards of treatment has positive impact on European tourist´s minds. In Ukraine you can get affordable prices for surrogacy with the possibility of using donor’s oocytes of Slavic girls, who are considered the most beautiful and fertile donors among the others. Commercial surrogacy programs are legally allowed here due to specific medical reasons only for married heterosexual couples. In the end of the treatment, Intended Parents receive birth certificate of the babies born via surrogacy with their names as legal parents. Neither surrogate mother or egg donor have no parental rights for newborn babies.

However, in practice the picture is not as rosy as it seems.

According to our experience, there are some clinics in Ukraine that do not obey any ethical rules of medical treatment during surrogacy programs they offer.

For example, there were few cases when the embryos of different couples were confused in clinic and the embryo-transfers have been done to the wrong surrogate mother. In the end some couples got the babies, who were not genetically related to them. From moral and legal point of view it creates a lot of troubles for such parents, who, first of all, become confused and disoriented after such results of the treatment, and second, could be accused by the government of human trafficking, because in reality these babies are not theirs and third, it is almost impossible get passports for such babies in the consulates of origin of Intended Parents, because there are no reasons for giving them citizenship and documents for travelling home.

Other issues

High level of corruption makes transparent work of the clinics and agencies in Ukraine almost impossible. In the city we were working before there are no private Maternity Houses. At the same time, government institutions are working very badly in Ukraine. There is no necessary equipment for neonatal care and sometimes even no places for babies in NICU department. Moreover, manipulations from the staff of the Maternity houses are widely spread in Ukraine. There will be no any treatment or attention to the patients until they get some corruption money for their services, price of which is usually as big as in private medical institutions in European Union countries. Not surprisingly, that the level of Mothers´ and infants’ mortality in Ukraine is quite high compared with developed European and Asian countries.

The epidemiological conditions life in Ukraine is not better. For instance, there is a high level of people with dangerous infection diseases there such as Measles, Tuberculosis and HIV infections because of poor vaccination and extreme poverty. Nevertheless, government doesn´t want to put them in the hospitals under some quarantine because of the lack of funding, so all these people are easily going around and can infect the others.

Our experience

All these difficulties in work became reasons why we left Ukraine and didn’t want to continue our work there. After all, we believe that in future situation will become better. But for the moment we want to warn everybody who is willing to have surrogacy program there to be very careful choosing the agency and the clinic you are going to work with.

Despite all abovementioned, we were very happy to work with Academium clinic in Odessa city, which provides good results of treatment with reasonable prices for everyone who is willing to have babies. We really appreciate that we have been working with such professional reproductologist as Dr.Sobolev. We can recommend his clinic as one of the best clinics for IVF treatment and surrogacy in Ukraine.

Next destination we are going to talk about is Russia. Keep follow our blog!

Have some questions? Contact us! We will be happy to help!

Author: Sukhanova Hanna, legal adviser of Pons Medical Group

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However, in practice the picture is not as rosy as it seems.

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