Ukraine, one of the poorest countries in Europe, has been in a situation of political instability for several years. It is estimated that this country accounts for a significant share of the global market in the surrogacy industry.
Posted at 5:00 p.m.
Potential parents from wealthier countries are turning to Ukraine to buy eggs from young women and order children from surrogate mothers, who are given to their adoptive parents when they are born.
The reproductive exploitation industry has grown rapidly there, taking advantage of the precarious employment, housing and poverty of many Ukrainian women, whose main motivation to commodify their reproductive functions is economic.
The production process of this industry is unstoppable once started.
These potential foreign parents weigh heavily on the local population with the consequences of their choice to start a family. Following the attack by the Russian army, many of them were unable to cross the border to pick up their child. Ukrainian nannies find themselves with numerous dependent newborns amidst the bombs and cannot find shelter themselves with their families. These children, conceived to be separated from their mothers at birth, have no legal existence. Some surrogate mothers, whose contract provides for final payment upon delivery of the child, risk not being paid before the end of the war.
Canadian journalist Alison Motluck, who is following the situation closely, explains in her newsletter1 that certain surrogate mothers, abandoned by their agencies, no longer even have the possibility of knowing and reaching the foreigners for whom they are carrying a child. Other surrogate mothers, refugees in Poland or Moldova, will possibly be redirected to Ukraine, a country at war, at the time of birth, so that the potential parents can be recognized as legal parents. 2
An Australian surrogacy “brokerage” agency advises its clients to obtain the consent of the surrogate mother to the delivery of the child to WhatsApp. She then recommends having the child transported by a nanny with power of attorney, who will present makeshift documents at the border.
The war thus reveals the tragic utopia of an industry that intentionally dissociates the mother-child dyad and opens breaches to human trafficking.
How do we explain that Canadian, British, American and Australian potential parents, citizens of countries that have legalized the use of surrogate mothers, are so numerous to call upon Ukrainian surrogate mothers rather than having recourse to their fellow citizens?
As soon as governments recognize surrogacy contracts and agree to establish legal parentage in favor of the potential parent, the framework creates demand, regardless of the terms of the contracts. The local offer is not enough, because the candidates to volunteer to live a gestational surrogacy are in permanent shortage in Canada.
The laws of the market then operate on a global scale; potential Canadian parents, feeling socially justified in resorting to this practice, are turning to Ukraine to access a larger pool of surrogate mothers, faster and at more competitive prices.
With Bill 2, the Quebec government proposes to enshrine in its Civil Code the recognition of filiations for its citizens who have recourse to surrogate mothers domiciled in foreign countries, including poor countries such as Ukraine. The tragic observation of the reality in Ukraine and the current geopolitical uncertainty demonstrate that it is illusory to believe that Quebec can have any influence outside the border.
The state of war lifted the veil on the dehumanization created by this industry of reproductive exploitation: an industry ready to bring pregnant women who had managed to leave Ukraine back to the war zone to give birth there. This trade can flourish wherever there is economic precariousness for women and where the rule of law is fragile or corrupt.
These facts being known before the Russian invasion, what is the responsibility of governments to continue to allow their citizens to subscribe to such contracts?
Barely two years ago, however, infants had (already) been stranded for months by the hundreds in improvised nurseries in Ukrainian hotel rooms, during the first wave of COVID-19.
The war will not put an end to this industry. A human rights activist in Ukraine, Maria Dmitryeva, reported in March that refugee women are already being targeted by agency recruiters to become surrogate mothers. As for the Canadian clients of the agencies, we report their concern about delays in the resumption of “embryo transfers”.
The Canadian government, with its Assisted Human Reproduction Act of 2004, moved towards a logic of harm reduction by tolerating this practice if the surrogate mother is not paid. Provincial governments, faced with a fait accompli, are in an ethical impasse regarding the legal situation of children already born of this practice, including those born abroad.
Driven by its desire to be attentive to the suffering that can be caused by infertility or the unfulfilled desire for a child, the Quebec government is unfortunately committed, like the other provinces, to the path of supervision, thus participating in the implacable laws of the market. The surrogacy industry and wealthy prospective parents will benefit while mothers and children will be negatively affected here and elsewhere.
Quebec can once again become the forward-thinking province it once was and an inspiration to the rest of Canada. It is possible to maintain article 541 of the Civil Code (which does not recognize surrogacy contracts) and stop facilitating the practice of recourse to surrogate mothers, while working internationally for the abolition of the reproductive exploitation of women. and children.