For many couples, the only way to start a happy family with a child in it is to opt for surrogacy. This is a challenging journey that includes travels, the wait, and legal solutions, but in the end, it’s all worth being a parent.
Ukraine is one of the best choices to find a surrogate mother. Its pretty liberal surrogacy laws allow couples from all around the world to become parents of a beautiful child. HermanFamily Consulting & Law agency is ready to legally support you all the way through the surrogacy program.
But first, let’s review the most important points of this journey.
Ukrainian surrogacy law
The Law of Ukraine has multiple articles defining the country’s views on surrogacy and any requirements that come along.
Therefore, IVF and embryo implantation procedures are allowed, but have to be provided according to the Ministry of Health of Ukraine standards and for couples who didn’t achieve success in infertility treatment. Other statements from these articles include:
- The surrogacy process must be done exclusively in the presence of the spouses’ written agreement.
- Egg donor anonymity is protected, no open donors are allowed.
- The medical secrecy of the process must be protected.
- Children that were conceived with the use of ART are the results of a Ukraine surrogacy program.
- The child conceived during the surrogacy program is considered a legal child of the intended parents right from the moment of conception.
As you can see, the law is pretty much on the intended parents’ side, and legal questions that might arise for foreign intended parents are low in number.
Legal surrogacy programs in Ukraine
Ukrainian Law recognizes only a gestational surrogacy program as the traditional one is banned. Therefore, only the contracting couple or at least one of them should have a genetic connection to the child, but the embryo shouldn’t have a genetic link to the surrogate mother.
The gestational surrogacy program is completely legal in Ukraine, including with the use of donated eggs and embryo implantation.
These programs are also allowed for foreign couples, which makes Ukraine a perfect choice to expand a family. However, options for same-sex married couples are for now restricted as well for single women who want a child.
Requirements for surrogacy
Intended parents, whether Ukrainian or foreign, have to meet certain requirements in order to be legally eligible to participate in a surrogacy program.
Medical conditions that allow surrogacy include:
- morphologic pathologies of the womb and/or cervix that make it impossible for a woman to conceive or carry to the term: synechiae, absence of womb, atypical womb, cervix deformations;
- severe chronic health conditions that make pregnancy dangerous for a woman’s and child’s health;
- more than 4 failed attempts of implantation with high-quality fertilized eggs.
If the couple has medical records that prove one or more of the conditions stated above, they are eligible for participation in the surrogacy program and can proceed with it. The next step is to check the genetic material of the intended mother, father, or both of them. This is a standard serology testing that every IVF clinic does to ensure the quality of eggs and/or sperm and exclude any severe hereditary diseases. This can be done locally in your state, but nevertheless, the IVF clinic in Ukraine has to be provided with legally translated medical records that prove that eligibility.
An important note: surrogacy programs in Ukraine are allowed to married couples only, both Ukrainian and foreign. You have to provide your clinic with a marriage certificate with Apostille ‒ either an original or notarized copy.
A child-carrying contract
If all requirements are met from both sides, and both intended parents and the surrogate have undergone medical and psychological evaluations, a contract can be finally signed.
The intended parents’ and the surrogate mother’s signatures are required on two copies of the child-carrying contract, which must be signed in writing and in front of a notary.
Contracts with foreign citizens must be written in both the foreign party’s native language and also Ukrainian.
Intended parents can use surrogacy attorney services to develop the contract, approve it, and sign it in any IVF clinic in Ukraine. Also, a surrogacy lawyer will help to solve any other questions that might arise during the surrogacy program: the destiny of unused embryos, getting more information about surrogates, and more.
HermanFamily Law & Consulting agency provides these services for any couple that wants to sign up for a surrogacy program in Ukraine. We will help with contract development and signing, and other legal matters of the surrogacy process.
Birth registration of a surrogate baby
It is important to note that Ukrainian law is quite liberal when it comes to birth registration. The names of the intended parents are entered in the birth certificate from the very beginning and without additional procedures.
This registration is carried out in accordance with Ukrainian law following requests from foreign nationals and stateless individuals. If a woman who was pregnant with an embryo from the married couple gave birth to the child, the married couple who approved the implantation must apply for the birth to be registered. A legally verified surrogate’s permission is all that is required to have the names of the couple listed as the legal parents of the baby, together with the birth certificate for the child and a genetic relationship certificate for the intended parents.
As a result, the couple that signed the contract is listed as legal parents in the internal registration document, with the surrogate mother’s name listed in this record under the “Remarks” section. This document is confidential and is stored in the Ukrainian local Vital Statistics Office.
The process of birth registration takes only a few hours if all the paperwork is ready. With that in mind, the birth certificate can be received on the same day ‒ in most cases, within 5-7 working days after the child’s delivery.
As you can see, the intended parents are right away registered as legal parents of a surrogate child in Ukraine, and the surrogate mother and her spouse don’t have parental rights over the surrogate baby.
What citizenship will the surrogate baby receive?
The “On the Citizenship of Ukraine” Law states that a child born in Ukraine via a surrogate mother as a consequence of the transfer of an embryo generated by a foreign married couple is not automatically granted Ukrainian citizenship.
Only if the baby has not already acquired the citizenship of his or her parents and the parents are legally residing continuously on Ukrainian soil, does a child born on Ukrainian soil to foreign parents receive Ukrainian citizenship. In all other cases, the child inherits the citizenship of the legal parents ‒ a couple that signed the surrogacy contract.
Finally, as the last stage of the Ukrainian surrogacy program, the intended parents must take action to get a visa or passport for their newborn child or children.