Ukraine war keeps surrogate babies apart from biological families

Heartbreaking footage of babies being transported to the basement of a bunker in the Ukrainian capital Kyiv to protect them from ongoing Russian bombardment has illustrated the plight of those involved in Ukraine's booming global surrogacy industry.

The Russia-Ukraine war deeply affected the babies born to Ukrainian surrogate mothers and their biological families in other countries.

Ukraine is a major international surrogacy destination, given its very liberal laws, as well as the fact that prices are more affordable than in the United States.

Since 2002, surrogacy and surrogacy in combination with egg/sperm donation has been legal in Ukraine. According to Ukrainian law, a donor or a surrogate mother has no parental rights over the child born and the child born is legally the child of the prospective parents.

Before the war, a clinic in Kyiv was providing surrogate mother services to families, most of whom could not have a baby due to health problems. Normally, the parents living outside Ukraine who wanted to have a baby via surrogacy were required to travel to the country ahead of the birth and complete relevant paperwork before taking their children home. However, they could not travel to the country after the war began.

Nearly 20 babies, all of whom were carried by Ukrainian surrogate mothers for couples living overseas, could not unite with their biological families in other countries and are waiting for them in the clinic's shelter.

While the caregivers at the clinic make great efforts to comfort the babies, some biological parents have even risked coming to Kyiv to get them. Happy endings have emerged, with couples from the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia all safely making the journey and meeting their babies. However, hundreds of other families in despair are waiting for the war to end to be able to reach their newborns.