Surrogacy in Ukraine – 2022 Update

In this video, Accredited Family Law Specialist and Page Provan Director Stephen Page shares his knowledge and concerns about undertaking surrogacy in Ukraine.

Transcript

G’day. I’m. Stephen Page from Page Provan Family and Fertility Lawyers. I’m a dad through surrogacy, all done in Brisbane here at home. And I’ve advised in over 1750 legacy journeys for clients throughout Australia and at last count, 32 countries overseas. 

I haven’t had too many clients go to the Ukraine because I’ve had concerns about the Ukraine. But certainly the second couple who ever went to Ukraine for surrogacy all those years ago, they were mine. So I was right there at the beginning and I observed what’s happened to the Ukraine all the way through. One of the issues that I’ve had with the Ukraine has been the obvious and that’s the security situation.

And I recall back in 2014, I had a couple who came and saw me, or rather one of them came and saw me about doing surrogacy in the Ukraine. And I had a number of concerns, and one of those concerns was the security situation. I didn’t like what Russia was doing. And I said, “One of the reasons you shouldn’t go to the Ukraine at this point is because of the likely security situation.” 

The following day, my client phoned me and said, “Well, thanks for the advice. We had really been keen on going to the Ukraine and you’ve set out a number of reasons why not to go there, including the situation of security. I could never have imagined last night that the plane would have been shot out of the sky.” 

And I said when I was talking about the security situation in Ukraine, I couldn’t have imagined that the Malaysian airliner would have been shot out of the sky and 100 odd people die. But it certainly made my advice about security prescient. 

So moving forward to 2022, I’m really worried about what’s happening in the Ukraine.

Any day now, I suspect that Russian forces will invade. Australians are over there right now undertaking surrogacy. There are Ukrainian women there right now who are pregnant to Australian intended parents. There are Australian intended parents in the Ukraine right now with their babies. The Australian government, like the governments of the UK and the US, have said, get out.

And I just can’t say anything else. I’m really, really worried that Australians will remain there and potentially die. It’s estimated that 50,000 people in the Ukraine will die if and when the Russians invade. I just don’t want any Australians being caught up in there. I’m really worried about what’s going to happen to those babies, the Australian-inteded parents and the surrogates.

We’ve seen surrogacy crises before. We’ve seen them in India and Nepal and Thailand and Mexico. And there have been issues in the past about surrogacy in the Ukraine, but we’ve never seen a war in the heartland of places where surrogacy occurs, and that’s what we’re likely to see soon.

So if you are an Australian who is in that situation, for goodness sake, get out. If you can, just get out.

The Australian government I’m sure will do everything it can to speed up the process of citizenship.

Please get legal advice about what can be done to help you get out. Please get on to your local federal member or Senator. Most people don’t know who they are. Google your suburb and say federal MP; you’ll find out the name. The good news is soon we are going to have a federal election so they’ll be very keen to know you. Get in contact with them.

You need every bit of help you can get, but please get out. Be safe. Make sure you, the surrogate and the baby are safe. You shouldn’t assume that your surrogate has to give birth in Ukraine. The surrogate might be able to give birth somewhere else.

There will be enormous legal challenges in doing that but an enormous legal challenge in doing that is better than having a dead surrogate and a dead baby. Good luck. Take care. Thank you.