Surrogacy
Ukraine is one of the few countries in Europe where there is a surrogacy law where foreign couples can apply.
The cost of surrogacy in Ukraine, with our agency, proposes significantly lower cost than the same procedure would cost in the USA, including legal, clinical and agency services, coordination and medication fees.
The legal advantages are the following:
- Agreements of commercial surrogacy or of payment are allowed without limitation of remuneration to be received by a surrogate mother.
- No decision of a Special Commission is required.
- No court order is required.
- No more adoption procedure is required.
- The birth certificate is issued in the name of the parents of intention immediately after the birth of the child.
- The surrogate woman has no legal right to be considered the mother of a child who gave birth in a surrogacy program. Only ordering or intentional parents are considered the legal parents of the child born by surrogacy pregnancy.
The following legal acts regulate surrogacy in Ukraine:
- The Family Code of Ukraine;
- The Law of the Civil Registry of Ukraine of 07/01/2010 No. 2398 / VI;
- «The Rules for the Registration of Vital Statistics of Ukraine” of 10/18/2000 No. 52/5;
- “The Instruction on Assisted Reproduction Procedures”, Ministry of Health Order No. 771 of 12/23/2008;
- “The Law on Citizenship of Ukraine” No. 2235-III of 1/18/2001;
- “The procedure of entry to Ukraine for foreigners and stateless persons, their departure from Ukraine and transit through its territory”, Decree of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine No. 1074 of 12/29/1995.
- “The Family Code of Ukraine”, which came into force on 01/01/2004, has legalized the law of surrogacy in Ukraine to make it one of the most favorable in the world in relation to surrogacy and fully support reproductive rights of the person. It stipulates the following:
Article 123. Maternal and paternal affiliation of the child born as a result of Assisted Reproduction Techniques
- If the woman delivers the child conceived by assisted reproduction techniques, with the written consent of her husband, he must be registered as the father of the child born to his wife, (note: it is also applicable to Traditional Surrogacy)
- If the embryo conceived by the spouses who use assisted reproduction techniques is transferred into the body of another woman, the spouses will be the child’s parents. (Observation: gestational surrogacy)
- The spouses must be considered as parents of the child that gave birth to the wife, even if the embryo is conceived by her husband and the ovule of another woman but transferred in the womb of the wife.
In terms of surrogacy pregnancy, clause 1 of article 123 applies to Traditional Surrogacy: if there is a couple where the woman is inseminated with the sperm of the father (usually through artificial insemination), she is also the genetic and gestational mother. This means that, of course, she can renounce her maternal right in favor of the father, but from the legal point of view the letter of the law is always on her side and protects her maternal right. In the event that she officially relinquishes her maternal right before insemination, she as the genetic mother can always change her mind – during pregnancy or at the time of delivery – and the father’s right will not be respected. Once again, In legal terms and under normal circumstances there is a court order that will be issued in Ukraine to protect the father in case the surrogate mother wants to keep the child with her. For this reason, traditional surrogacy is not contemplated in the article.
Clause 2 of article 123 expressly stipulates the relations of gestational surrogacy. Therefore, we can conclude that Gestational Surrogacy is absolutely legal in Ukraine. According to this provision, the child is legally considered as the child of the ordering parents or parents of intention from the moment of conception. The surrogate mother can not support the child after birth for any reason and can obtain compensation for their service, in an agreed amount, as well as compensation for actual expenses.
