Dilara has been living in Tbilisi, Georgia for several months, doing various kinds of work, from hairdressing, shoemaking, to waitressing.
But really, there’s just one job she wants: carrying another person’s baby.
The widowed 34-year-old mother of 4 left her children together with her parents in Uzbekistan last 12 months, hoping to seek out work in the nascent surrogacy business.
“I had credit debts with the bank and I actually have 4 children to take care of. They’ve school, they’ve expenses, you understand. It’s hard for me myself,” Dilara told CNBC.
After all I would really like to turn out to be a surrogate mother.
Commercial surrogacy refers to a contract where a lady is paid to hold a pregnancy for one other person or couple. This differs from altruistic surrogacy, where the woman volunteers to hold the pregnancy to term with none compensation apart from reimbursement for medical expenses.
Typically, commercial surrogacy is gestational surrogacy, meaning the surrogate has no biological connection to the child.
Surrogacy laws vary greatly by country and state. For instance, in the United States, the practice is allowed in some states but banned in others, while in Canada and the United Kingdom only altruistic surrogacy is allowed. Meanwhile, in Georgia, as in Ukraine and Russia, each forms are legal.
The growing commercial surrogacy industry
Dilara is one in every of a growing number of girls turning to commercial surrogacy as a source of income in the face of growing global demand for carriers.
The worldwide commercial surrogacy industry was value it an estimated $14 billion in 2022in response to market research consultancy Global Market Insights – although exact numbers are difficult to confirm given the private nature of many deals.
This number is projected to rise to $129 billion by 2032 as infertility issues intensify and a growing variety of same-sex couples and singles seek ways to have children.
This demand is mainly driven by so-called intended parents in wealthy Western countries. Many seek cross-border surrogacy services to avoid long waiting lists or higher fees at home, or because national laws prohibit surrogacy or exclude certain groups – such as homosexual couples – from the practice. The end of Covid-19 travel bans also led to a rise in global demand for surrogacy last 12 months.
“The pandemic has limited international surrogacy, but now we’re seeing all that pent-up demand,” said Sam Everingham, a surrogacy expert who is global director of Australian surrogacy support group Growing Families, based in Sydney.
The war in Ukraine pushes surrogacy into recent markets
Until last 12 months, Ukraine was the second largest market for surrogacy in the world after the United States, attracting expectant parents from abroad with lower fees and a good regulatory framework. Most significantly, this includes listing the intended parents on the child’s birth certificate, not the surrogate mother.
But that every one modified with Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022. Reports quickly surfaced of surrogate moms moving to bomb shelters and future parents attempting to enter Ukraine to reunite with their surrogates.
A lady cares for a surrogate-born baby in a makeshift basement shelter in Kiev, Ukraine after the Russian invasion.
Anastasia Vlasova | Getty Images | News Getty’s paintings
“We had numerous parents-to-be who were with us at various stages of the process,” said Olga Pysana, a partner at the Ukrainian foster agency World Center of Baby, which at the time had 37 pregnant surrogates and 130 expectant parents. “We needed to quickly give you an alternate.”
The conflict has pushed the industry to countries such as nearby Georgia, where regulations are very near those of Ukraine. The World Center of Baby, which already had operations in Cyprus in 2022, plans to open its office in Georgia this month. Meanwhile, Mexico and parts of Latin America also saw gains.
In Georgia, as in Ukraine, commercial surrogacy programs cost around $40,000-50,000, while in Mexico around $60,000-70,000. This compares to the US average of $120,000 and above
“Here in Mexico, we now have a surrogacy boom again because Ukraine is closed,” said Ernesto Noriega, chief executive and founding father of Egg Donors Miracles, an agency for a % increase in surrogacy contracts last 12 months.
A source of income for women
The global boom has increased the demand for surrogates, with Facebook groups and agency ads appealing to women with the promise of considerable income.
Lauragh, from south-east Ireland, whose son was born in October 2021, said her surrogate was capable of buy a house for herself and her two daughters in Ukraine due to the earnings from the scheme.
The most important driving factor, whether in Ukraine, Georgia, Mexico… is financial motivation.
Olga Pisana
partner, World Kid’s Center
“The most important driver, whether in Ukraine, Georgia, Mexico – all major markets – is financial motivation,” Pysana said of surrogates.
Indeed, Dilara was drawn to the prospect of upper earnings when she was first introduced to surrogacy by a co-worker working together with her in a call center. “If you should be a surrogate, they provide you with good money,” she recalled her younger friend saying.
Nevertheless, the attraction of girls to the industry has raised concerns, not least due to the often large disparity between agency fees and surrogate earnings. In lots of cases, a surrogate can earn lower than 1 / 4 of the tens of hundreds of dollars charged to the intended parents.
The embryologist assesses the quality of the collected oocytes – the female reproductive cell – before fertilization.
World Kid’s Center
“There’s one thing I have been researching for two months about this job, and the doctors take $50,000, $60,000 from the parents and provides $12,000 to $20,000 to the surrogate mother,” Dilara said. “It isn’t fair what they’re doing.
Pysana and Noriega, for their part, argued that their agency fees were justified resulting from the high medical costs related to the trial, as well as the costs of housing and feeding the surrogate moms in the final weeks of pregnancy. Nevertheless, they admitted that corruption exists in other firms.
Ethical Issues and Risks of Use
There are also significant ethical issues surrounding commercial surrogacy, with critics claiming that the industry takes advantage of vulnerable women.
One among the prerequisites for many agencies, for example, is that would-be surrogates are widowed or single and have already got no less than one child. Agencies say this is to point out that a lady is physically and mentally prepared for pregnancy and to avoid disputes with partners.
This is not an excellent industry for women. They’re victims to me.
Teresa Ulloa Ziaurriz
regional director, CATWLAC
“This is not an excellent industry for women,” said Teresa Ulloa Ziaurriz, regional director of the Coalition Against Trafficking in Women and Girls in Latin America and the Caribbean (CATWLAC). “For me, they’re victims.”
Ulloa Ziaurriz said that from her experience working as a women’s reproductive lawyer in Latin America – mainly Argentina, Colombia, Ecuador and Mexico – agencies specifically turn to people facing financial difficulties.
“After the pandemic, many ladies lost their jobs. They were looking for single women with children who desperately needed financial support,” she said of the agencies, describing the process as a type of human trafficking.
The surrogacy process is also physically and mentally demanding, and while most agencies require potential carriers to undergo pre-contract mental and physical health checks, the lack of regulation leaves room for mistreatment.
“There are not any international standards and recent programs are launched in unregulated places,” said Everingham.
A call for surrogacy standards
Some countries at the moment are attempting to rectify these shortcomings. In the UK, for example, regulators are working on a review to enhance national surrogacy safeguards.
“While there is little we are able to do to alter surrogacy laws abroad, all we are able to do is be sure that the system in the UK is well regulated and in the best interests of the child, foster parents and parents-to-be” – Professor Nick Hopkins, family law specialist said the commissioner of the Law Commission of England and Wales.
In the first three quarters of 2022, over 400 parenting orders were issued in the UK for foster parents. In line with the Legal Affairs Committee, the variety of children born as a results of surrogacy might be approx Today it’s 10 times higher than it was a decade ago.
Women’s rights groups are calling for more regulation of the commercial surrogacy industry.
Yuri Diachyshin | afp | Getty’s paintings
But with no international coordination, Lauragh said the onus is on prospective parents to conduct research and be sure that surrogate moms receive a good deal.
“If you should tackle this process, it is your responsibility to do the research,” Lauragh said, noting that she insisted on direct communication together with her deputy throughout the process. The two remain in touch to at the present time.
“There are some very low-cost agencies, but in the event that they are low-cost, you’ll be able to make certain that the surrogate is paying the price,” she added.
Still, supporters of surrogacy argue that, along with offering a path to parenthood for those unable to conceive naturally, surrogacy is usually a relief for women.
“In the event you check with surrogates, they are saying it’s quite empowering,” said Pysana. “They feel like they’re doing something great.”
Meanwhile, Dilara said her adventure with surrogacy continues.
“If there is an excellent hospital and so they give me an excellent price, then after all I would really like to turn out to be a surrogate mother,” she said.