Surrogacy is one of the most controversial issues generated at all levels by the ethical complexities it raises. In Spain it is an illegal practice and that is why there are many couples traveling abroad, to countries where it is legalized, to realize their dream of being parents.
Precisely this week we echoed the news that more than twenty families remain trapped in Ukraine for not being able to register their newborn babies through surrogacy and therefore do not have their passports to return to the country.
As a result, many people have shown in networks their position around surrogacy. One of the most talked about has been that of a medical student who in a Twitter thread says she defended surrogacy until it was her turn and was thoroughly informed of the process.
The first hand thread
We want to clarify that as a means we do not position ourselves for or against surrogacy, let alone judge those who have chosen this option. We simply want to show different points of view so that you have a broader view of this complex issue.
The user, a medical student (@MedEstud) affected by a genetic disease that prevents her from conceiving, ensures that there is a great lack of knowledge about the ins and outs of the process in Ukraine, which is where she has been informed, and wants share your experience for awareness:
Dear @Barbijaputa I talk to you since you usually deal with the issue of maternity surrogacy. I have been an advocate for the MS until it has touched my "need" to use it and I was shocked when I informed myself more thoroughly about the process. There is great ignorance about it 👇
- MedEstud (@MedEstud) August 28, 2018
And this great ignorance is what makes there defenders of the SM. That there are couples who do it even knowing how it is better or talk, I can never understand. This is why I have encouraged to write this post and try to raise awareness.
- MedEstud (@MedEstud) August 28, 2018
This week has jumped the news that 20 families have been "kidnapped" in Ukraine because the Spanish consulate has closed to give passports to these children due to irregularities of the clinic in the process.
- MedEstud (@MedEstud) August 28, 2018
This clinic for more inri is the most internationalized and that more security says to have in that the surrogate mother is voluntary and that the process is totally transparent. And to which I addressed not long ago. I count my experience regarding that "voluntariness".
- MedEstud (@MedEstud) August 28, 2018
He claims to have requested information about the surrogacy process in the Ukrainian clinic. By the way, the United States and Ukraine are the countries that concentrate 80 percent of the total of Spanish babies born through replacement pregnancy, with Ukraine being the one with much lower costs for couples compared to the North American country.
What you do first is to contact the clinic, which offers you packages from a single attempt to unlimited “all-inclusive” where you are guaranteed to have a healthy child. So, like the one that guarantees your satisfaction with your car or fridge.
- MedEstud (@MedEstud) August 28, 2018
If in order to get that healthy child, the womb of 1 or 20 women must explode because nothing is necessary, it must be done because customer satisfaction comes first. The genetic material (sperm) must be that of the father but the feminine can be a donor.
- MedEstud (@MedEstud) August 28, 2018
And tell in detail how the process is if you decide to move on:
In the case of donor (eye to data), they will make you see a series of photos and characteristics so that you choose the one you like the most and then comes the question of the million “what sex do you want your baby to have?” WTF ??? . Am I "having a child" or buying shoes?
- MedEstud (@MedEstud) August 28, 2018
If you are not very smart and do not ask, nobody will tell you anything until you begin the process. But if you are human and you are worried about how the person who is going to manage will be, if they take care of it, if they are happy, if they want to do it, etc. you will get an unpleasant surprise
- MedEstud (@MedEstud) August 28, 2018
You will not be able to have any contact with her. They will only give you 15 minutes a month of video calling (protected of course). At this point in the information collection I no longer had words. Well yes, he had them, but none was pretty. I was scared and very disgusted.
- MedEstud (@MedEstud) August 28, 2018
The depersonalization of the process is brutal. It's from the "take my gametes, let me know when the baby is born" stick. And you keep doing your life while a woman on the other side of the world struggles alone to have your child because if there is no baby, she doesn't charge of course 🤢
- MedEstud (@MedEstud) August 28, 2018
Finally, he says that what he had found out, with his partner they decided to give up the process and they are meditating other options:
We give up this process, more would be missing. I prefer not to have a child to obviously adore and exploit a woman because of me. And since I'm quite curious, I decide to talk to a Ukrainian friend and what he tells me already grates the madness.
- MedEstud (@MedEstud) August 28, 2018
His words; “The girls are usually people from the periphery, very poor, who do it because they don't have to eat. It is not just the money they get for pregnancy, during those months they are in a house where they do not lack the basics and usually do it in secret ”👇
- MedEstud (@MedEstud) August 28, 2018
When I hear I want to cry for myself, that I have been about to fall into this and exploit a woman and especially for them, who are inside a disgusting market with no chance to raise their voices and speak clearly about their situation.
- MedEstud (@MedEstud) August 28, 2018
We are now in a process of rest and rethinking what to do in terms of adoption (here, there etc). Now I understand more than ever when they said "motherhood is not a right." No, having a child at the expense of poor women is a crime.
- MedEstud (@MedEstud) August 28, 2018
The reactions have not been expected
Many people expressed admiration for his courage but of course, his words also reacted to defenders of surrogacy, who disagree with the above:
What you expose is tendentious. You are talking about a specific case that is the gs in Ukraine. If this process were like that I would also be against it. This process can be done in many ways and in different ways. It is neither better nor worse than others. Do you think that inter-adoption is not earned?
- israel rodriguez (@israaupa) August 28, 2018
Against who wants to gestate a child freely and voluntarily do you have any arguments or just convince her that she does not exist while we maintain the prohibition?
- Pablo Collazo (@Pablofcollazo) August 28, 2018
There are people who carry their pregnancy in a perfectly normal way, and people who may want to help someone, a friend, a famous case, whatever, who has lost her uterus, for example
- Pablo Collazo (@Pablofcollazo) August 28, 2018
Your experience differs greatly from some of my acquaintances who had continuous contact with the pregnant woman. Not everything is black and white. By this I do not mean that he is in favor but what you say is not necessarily so.
- QuantumWars (@QuantumWar) August 29, 2018
As we mentioned at the beginning, motherhood by subrogation generates a great controversy in society. Every time they discuss their regulation, voices arise in favor, against and with nuances such as subrogation being free and altruistic without mediating money. But the reality is much more complex.
Irregularities in Ukraine
The user is not the only one who talks about irregularities in this country. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs itself warns that "the Spanish authorities cannot be held responsible for the promises and statements made by private agencies, which carry out an activity outside Spain that is not covered by Spanish Law"
And specifically he talks about scams, bad praxis and deceptions Therefore, it is strongly discouraged to initiate a surrogacy process in Ukraine. From the website of the Spanish Embassy in Kiev there is a clear warning:
"In recent months there have been scams and deceptions by the so-called assisted reproduction clinics and people linked to this type of business (irregularities in the process, lack of reports, lack of transparency and mainly medical malpractice), As it is reiterated, they are not allowed in Spain.
"To all this we should add the medical malpractice reflected in numerous cases: induced abortions by pregnant women assisted reproduction clinics from the sixth week of pregnancy, with the aim of increasing expenses and carrying out another expensive insemination process, or poor medical control during pregnancy of pregnant mothers.
"For all the above it is not advisable to start a surrogacy or replacement pregnancy process in Ukraine".
