In Moscow, arrested involved in the case about the trafficking of children from surrogate mothers — among them two leaders of medical centers, three doctors, a translator and a lawyer. Also, according to the telegram channel Mash, under house arrest sent a surrogate mother. All of the charges, the house they were searched. Blame no one recognized.
In January in a private apartment in Odintsovo found several babies, one of whom died. It turned out that children of surrogate mothers, they had a nanny, a Ukrainian citizen, and the parents are citizens of the Philippines — doing paperwork. Then brought a criminal case.
Another big story happened in June, when the police found in the Moscow apartment with a nanny-Chinese five infants, and also of surrogate mothers. The children had planned to pick up Chinese citizens, but because of the pandemic, they are unable to come.
According to investigators, beginning in 2014 those arrested provided surrogacy services, allegedly bypassing the law and customers are not passed on the biomaterial, and just bought the babies. Lawyer Vadim Kudryavtsev considers that the criminal trail should look at the agencies that provide surrogate mothers.
Vadim Kudryavtsev, the lawyer: “the Problem is that a lot of middlemen. Because of this, the business has become criminal. There are directly medical centers, but they do not look for a surrogate mom. There are special companies, and there are many cases when criminal proceedings were initiated, when children are illegal. Clinic responsible for the medical program. The woman comes there, and as it is keeps track of the mother at which the contract with the surrogate. But very often they are abroad, roughly speaking, they pay the middleman. That is, the last criminal case that was instituted when there are construction companies engaged in surrogacy, and some production centers”.
Until the bureaucratic issues are resolved, children need to be supervised by either the surrogate mother or to be in the clinic. The fact that the babies were in a private apartment with other people, could be cause for criminal prosecution.
Among those arrested, the General Director of the European center of surrogate motherhood Vladislav Melnikov, who, according to “MK”, search for a surrogate mother for Pugacheva and Galkin. Later Galkin said he was not familiar with Melnikov. However, other names are well known in the medical environment. For example, Taras Ashitkov considered one of the best embryologists in the country, the others also honored the doctors.
Were also detained lawyer of the “We” that helped to make children. The Director of this company, an expert in reproductive law and surrogacy Konstantin Svitnev considers that the case was fabricated.
Konstantin Svitnev, the Director of “We”: “it is absolutely fake, sewn on the live thread nadergat from anywhere of the facts of the case that will fall apart in any court. It’s not just people, they are scientists. Surrogacy has nothing to do with trafficking in children, the surrogate mother has no genetic blood relationship with the children that is nurturing. But parents have this relationship. That child, now often speak and write of “causing death by imprudence”. Yes, the baby was born very sick, he had brain surgery after birth. Unfortunately he did not survive. Although the diagnosis is “syndrome of sudden death of infants”. These Filipinos who are parents, a husband was sterile, sterile. And Taras Vyacheslavovich conducted a unique operation to remove a few healthy sperm that is documented. And the consequence believes that the man who has undergone this operation, came to buy someone else’s child”.
Hostages of the situation are children, who are now, apparently, are in the child’s home. By law, it is necessary to spend genetic examination and set of parents, but closed borders hinder it. Russia is one of the few countries where surrogacy is allowed. There is no special regulatory law, but there are certain provisions in the Family code and the laws “On fundamentals of protection of citizens ‘health” and “On acts of civil status”.
Between the biological parents, the clinic and the surrogate mother sign a contract. The total cost of all procedures — from 1.5 million to 3.5 million. In this case the surrogate mother gets about half a million plus the costs of IVF, management of pregnancy and childbirth. After birth the surrogate mother writes disclaimer and genetic parents issue birth certificate for themselves.
However, it is stipulated that if the surrogate mother changes her mind, then she can claim the child. This is already resolved by the court. In 2017, the state Duma introduced a bill to ban surrogacy. According to the authors, “for the transfer of the child does not even require the adoption procedure, which puts the contract on rendering of such services outside the legal field”. The draft law has not passed even the first reading.
