Dozens of babies born to Ukrainian surrogates were illegally sold in the Czech Republic
At least 30 babies born to Ukrainian surrogate mothers have reportedly been illegally sold in the Czech Republic since 2019. Six employees of a fertility clinic are suspected of having earned 1.2 million euros with child trafficking.
Vienna, Prague, Kyiv – At least 30 babies are said to have been illegally sold to foreigners in the Czech Republic since 2019 after the babies were born to Ukrainian surrogate mothers in Prague. According to Kathpress, the Vienna Institute for Medical Anthropology and Bioethics (IMABE) reported this on Monday with reference to the Czech media portal Seznam Zprávy . IMABE Managing Director Susanne Kummer has criticized surrogacy as a "deeply unethical practice at the expense of women and children".
The focus of the Czech investigation is therefore the Ukrainian agency Feskov-Human Reproduction Group with locations in Kharkiv, Kyiv and Prague. Clinic operator Alexander Feskov has been accused of human trafficking in Ukraine since last year, according to IMABE. In the meantime, six employees of the fertility clinic are also suspected of having earned 1.2 million euros with child trafficking.
The Feskov Clinic advertises a "remote guarantee program": customers or contract parents do not have to travel to Ukraine for a child via surrogacy. Both the "reproductive program" and confinement could take place depending on the country of choice. This would make it possible to circumvent stricter national laws. Because: According to Ukrainian law, only infertile and married couples are allowed for surrogacy. However, single men who wish to have children and homosexual couples from all over the world were also among Feskov's customers.
60,000 to 70,000 euros per child "ready for collection".
The agency is therefore recruiting low-income Ukrainian women to participate in a surrogacy program. "The women then gave birth to their children in the Czech Republic. The surrogate mothers were then forced to pretend to be biological mothers and to give up their parental rights in favor of foreigners," IMABE quoted from a report by the Interior Ministry in Kyiv. The costs for a "pick-up-ready" child were therefore 60,000 to 70,000 euros. The surrogate mother received around 10,000 euros, which is three times the average Ukrainian annual salary.
The Czech National Center against Organized Crime (NCOZ) together with colleagues in Ukraine, Great Britain and Sweden documented the cases of the babies "sold" via Prague to Norway, Germany, Greece, Bulgaria, Spain, the United States or China became. Nobody checks who "orders" the babies - whether these people can properly care for a newborn or whether they could pose a danger to the child, according to Seznam Zprávy , Zdenek Kapitán, director of the Office for International Child Protection in the Czech Republic . Strict standards, such as those that have to be met in the case of adoption, would no longer apply.
For example, single men traveled to Prague and took the babies with them for a fee. Some even said they didn't know how to take care of the child. Others wanted a child as a "distraction" or so that they would not be alone later and would be taken care of. One of the customers from northern Europe, when asked by the police, said he bought the child because his mother wanted to have a grandchild, Seznam Zprávy reports . There is also no trace of a baby that was taken to the USA.
Surrogacy is not forbidden in the Czech Republic. The woman who gave birth to the child may receive an expense allowance and is also the legal mother of the child for the time being. The surrogate mother can obtain adoption consent six weeks after the birth upon personal application to the court. The child will only be handed over to the ordering parents after the court decision.
According to IMABE, this is a worrying development in Germany
In her broadcast on Monday, IMABE Managing Director Kummer also referred to the worrying development in Germany, where the FDP, SPD and Greens are currently examining options for legalizing egg donation and "altruistic" surrogacy.
Another negative example is Great Britain, Kummer continued: "We are already seeing how the legalization of surrogacy has changed Great Britain." The call for commercial methods was getting louder and louder. Five-digit sums would be paid to women who "make their bodies available as a living incubator". The production of babies is a "deeply unethical production process - at the expense of women and children", criticized Kummer.
She also referred to a resolution of May 5, 2022 of the European Parliament. Surrogacy is condemned there as a form of "reproductive exploitation". It poses a danger, especially "for those who are poorer and in vulnerable situations," said the MEPs in their resolution.
According to Kummer, a current US study also shows that surrogacy is associated with greater health risks. The risk of a caesarean section is three times higher in a surrogacy and five times higher in the case of a premature birth than in pregnancies with naturally conceived children. Postpartum depression is also significantly higher in women after the birth of surrogate children than after the birth of their own children - regardless of the mother's age. Economic hardship is one of the main factors in making oneself available as a surrogate mother, according to the study. (APA)
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