During the COVID-19 crisis, Ukraine ended up at the centre of an international surrogacy scandal.
On 30 April, the Ukrainian fertility clinic Biotexcom released a video showing 46 surrogate babies being cared for at a hotel in the capital city of Kyiv. As foreign clients, the babies' genetic parents were unable to collect them – earlier, on 12 March, Ukraine had introduced quarantine and temporarily banned all foreigners from entering the country until 22 June. These scenes made headlines internationally.
The incident also sparked fierce debate among officials about surrogacy for foreign clients – Ukraine is one of only a handful of countries which allows it. On 13 May, Ombudsman for Human Rights Ludmila Denisova first asserted in a Facebook post that surrogacy should be allowed only for Ukrainian citizens, since “the provision of such services to foreign nationals may lead to violations of children's rights.” The next day, the Ombudsman for Children's Rights Mykola Kuleba supported Denisova, calling commercial surrogacy "child trafficking" and exploitation of surrogate mothers, whose position he later compared to slavery. However, Denisova visited the hotel shortly after her statement, after which she announced that all the babies were in good health and that she would assist their biological parents in entering the country in order to collect them. On 3 June Denisova announced during a press conference that 79 foreign parents had received permission from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to enter Ukraine despite the COVID-19 restrictions.
That may seem a happy ending, but the story is far from over.
How has Ukraine's reproductive medicine fared during COVID-19, and what can the pandemic tell us about assisted reproduction technologies (ARTs) and their deep dependence on transnational networks? And, most importantly of all – what has become of the surrogate mothers themselves?
Pandemic pregnancies
The surrogacy treatment procedure includes the creation of embryos through IVF (either from the genetic material of the commissioning parents or donor material) and their implantation into the surrogate, who carries the baby or babies to term. In Ukraine, commissioning parents should expect to pay around US$38-45,000 for surrogacy (with egg donation if needed), while surrogate mothers are paid $300-400 monthly during pregnancy and a lump sum of $15,000 after giving birth. Surrogate mothers sign a contract either with the commissioning parents or with an agency which represents them.
Lesya (a pseudonym) is a 30 year old surrogate mother from a small town in Ukraine. She works as a cashier; her husband, with whom she has a 10 year old child, is a miner. She became interested in surrogacy after moving to the city of Chernihiv for work, where she soon tired of renting one apartment after another. So in 2017, Lesya completed her first surrogacy, giving birth to twins for an American couple. She used the money to buy an apartment of her own. It was the first of several surrogate pregnancies.
In February 2020, when she was 30 weeks pregnant, Lesya moved to Kyiv to live in an apartment rented for her by the surrogacy agency. The following month, the pandemic reached Ukraine, and Lesya had to stay in the apartment completely alone. In April she gave birth at a private maternity ward, and subsequently returned home to reunite with her family. Despite the border closures, the commissioning parents – an American couple – were able to arrive in Ukraine and complete their child's legal registration. At the time of writing they are still in Ukraine, waiting until they are allowed to return to New York with their baby.
Natalia (a pseudonym) is an employee at the surrogacy agency which worked with Lesya. She says that women working with her agency delivered four babies during the quarantine period. All were successfully picked up by their American commissioning parents, who entered Ukraine from neighbouring Belarus, where they had flown from the USA.
