Ukraine surrogate mothers illegally ‘sold’ dozens of babies in the Czech Republic

The focus of the Czech research is therefore on the Ukrainian agency Feskov-Human Reproduction Group with offices in Kharkov, Kiev and Prague. Clinic operator Alexander Feskov has been accused of human trafficking in Ukraine since last year, according to IMABE. Six employees of the Wunschbaby Clinic are now also suspected of having earned 1.2 million euros from child trafficking.

60,000 euros for a baby
The Feskov clinic advertises a “distance guarantee program”: customers or contract parents do not have to travel to Ukraine for a child through surrogacy. Both the “reproduction program” and the incarceration can take place, depending on the country of choice. This would make it possible to circumvent stricter national laws. Because: Under Ukrainian law, only infertile and married couples are allowed for surrogacy. But also single men with a desire to have children and gay couples from all over the world belonged to Feskov’s customers.

60,000 to 70,000 euros for a “ready-made” child
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. Subsequently, the surrogate mothers were forced to pose as biological mothers and give up their parental rights in favor of foreigners,” IMABE quoted a report from the Interior Ministry in Kiev as saying. The costs for a “pick-up ready” child were therefore 60,000 to 70,000 euros. The surrogate mother received about 10,000 euros, which is three times the average Ukrainian annual salary.

Lache standards, children “sold” around the world
The Czech National Center against Organized Crime (NCOZ), along with colleagues in Ukraine, Britain and Sweden, documented cases of babies being “sold” via Prague to Norway, Germany, Greece, Bulgaria, Spain, the United States or China. became. No one controls who “orders” the babies — whether these people can properly care for a newborn or whether they could pose a danger to the child, Zdenek Kapitán, director of the Office for International Child Protection in the Czech Republic, according to “Seznam Zpravy”. Strict standards, such as those that have to be adhered to 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 did not know how to take care of the child. Others wanted a child as a “distraction” or so they wouldn’t be alone and taken care of later. One of the customers from Northern Europe told police that he bought the child because his mother wanted a grandchild, Seznam Zprávy reports. There is also no trace of a baby being brought to the US.

Not banned in the Czech Republic
Surrogacy is not prohibited in the Czech Republic. The woman who gave birth to the child can receive an expense allowance and is also the legal mother of the child for the time being. The surrogate mother can obtain approval for adoption six weeks after the birth on a personal request to the court. Only after the court decision will the child be handed over to the requesting parents.

“Women as breeding grounds”
In her broadcast Monday, IMABE director Susanne Kummer also referred to the worrying development in Germany, where the FDP, SPD and Greens are currently exploring options to legalize egg donation and “altruistic” surrogacy.

Another negative example is Britain, continues Kummer: “We are already seeing how the legalization of surrogacy has changed Britain.” The call for commercial proceedings grew louder. Five-figure sums would be paid to women who “make their bodies available as an incubator”. The production of babies is a “very unethical production process – at the expense of women and children,” criticized Kummer.

She also referred to a resolution of 5 May 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”, MEPs said in their resolution.