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: married heterosexual couples and single women using their own oocytes
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 to moderate
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 and not 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 1 to 2 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!
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