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Surrogacy in Other European Countries
Hacemos posible lo imposible
These are countries where you periodically hear about surrogacy. Some have it regulated only for resident citizens of the country, or they have no regulation at all, so they are not governed by a surrogacy law, but by their own civil code and corresponding laws.
Surrogacy in the United Kingdom
Surrogacy procedures in the UK are only carry out for British nationals. In addition, the surrogate mother has the right to withdraw and keep the baby.
Surrogacy in Belgium
Surrogacy in Belgium has no legislation, so obviously the child born there is Belgian. However, the law does not allow financial compensation to the surrogate mother. Any contract signed between the parents and the surrogate is null and void. Recently, the Belgian authorities have instructed their consulates not to register children born through surrogacy.
Surrogacy in the Czech Republic
Some surrogacy agencies carry out their surrogacy processes in the Czech Republic, having the children born in third countries. There is no legislation allowing surrogacy in the Czech Republic, so once again we are in the realm of legal loopholes and shadows.</p
However, in 2022, the registry office in Prague stopped registering children born through surrogacy. When the registry office is contacted, it notifies the police, who question the commissioning parents and the surrogate mother separately. Some agencies recommend lying to the registry, which can lead to an offence of misrepresentation to a public official.
The police intervened in this matter, with the arrest of several doctors involved in the process, which came to be called OPERATION SPANIEL. For all these reasons, these types of programs are not recommended.
We must understand that the parents commit two crimes:
- Lying to a public official, when they pass off the surrogate as their girlfriend.
- Falsification in a public document, when they make a declaration before a notary, where they say that the process has been altruistic, and the surrogate is not pay anything.
Given that the surrogate will inevitably appear on the birth certificate, she must relinquish the child so that later in the country of destination the parents can initiate the process of filiation or adoption by the second spouse, depending on the country, but no Czech notary accepts to draw up this document, given that you cannot relinquish a baby with a simple notarized document.
The agencies also require a document from the parents, stating that it is an altruistic gestation (falsification of a public document before a notary is a criminal offence), which is obviously untrue, and can lead to the offence of false documentation.
Surrogacy in Cyprus
Cyprus is an island in the Mediterranean Sea, which is divided in two, when on the 20th of July 1974, Turkey invaded the island, occupying 38% of the island, and founding the TURKISH REPUBLIC OF NORTHERN CYPRUS. Since then, the two nations have been officially at war, although the newspapers do not talk about it, and the country is divided in two, separated by a single-nation security zone known as the "GREEN LINE". The TURKISH REPUBLIC OF NORTHERN CYPRUS is a state NOT recognised by the European Union and most countries in the world.
Thus, today, Cyprus is divided into two countries:
- NORTHERN TURKISH REPUBLIC OF CYPRUS:This country does not have a ban on surrogacy, but it depends on Turkey where is prohibited (for all groups and individuals).
- SOUTHERN CYPRUS:It has a law on altruistic surrogacy (the surrogate mother cannot receive compensation), and it is only for heterosexual couples with medical problems that prevent them from becoming parents (i.e. not for single people).
What does the agency offering Cyprus as a great surrogacy destination for single men propose then?:
- Do an in vitro fertilization process, between the commissioning father (you) and the surrogate mother, as if you were a couple.
- The child is born in North Cyprus.
- It is register in South Cyprus.
- Or it is born and registered in a European country that does not have a surrogacy law.
- Or it is born and registered in a country such as Portugal, or another European country.
That a child born in one country is registered (we are not going to go into the details of the illegal way in which they do it) in another country is a very serious crime, which only reaches the parents, since the clinic is limited to giving birth to a child. Furthermore, given that where the birth took place there is no law that allows a single person to have a child through surrogacy, the gestational mother will always be the mother of the baby, because there is no law that allows her to give up the baby, being able, if she wishes, to make the future as a father very uncertain and complicated.
It is only a question of time before a scandal breaks out, as happened in the Czech Republic in March 2022, where Interpol intervened, arresting several doctors from a clinic where IVFs were performed, and several parents, which sadly became known as OPERATION SPANIEL.
