The practice of surrogacy has been allowed in Russia, Ukraine and Belarus, and is even performed for money, but war and sanctions have put these states out of business. Close to Europe remains Georgia, a country still reliable for surrogacy and moderately priced–between $25,000 and $50,000–but only for heterosexual couples.
People can also go to Cyprus, a location perhaps even more amenable than Georgia. The available facility, Cyprus IVF Hospital, offers every opportunity for all families, even the most assorted “families,” even with the possibility of choosing the sex of the child.
The choice is well illustrated with a chilling image on the clinic’s website: two hands hold two baby dolls, one wrapped in a pink cloth and the other in a light blue cloth. The one in the pink cloth also has a pink forehead band. Stereotypes are wasted. Just indicate your chosen gender and the order will come…. While the other embryos can be discarded, frozen or refrigerated waiting for a new uterus?
But the surrogate world tour offers many opportunities starting with the USA: paid “uterus for rent” is practiced in Arkansas, California, Florida, Illinois, Massachusetts, Texas and Vermont. It is free in Nebraska, New Mexico, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Washington, and Virginia.
In the rest of the world, besides the countries mentioned above, it is legal and paid, but with limitations that vary from state to state, such as in Armenia, South Africa and Thailand. Surrogacy is legal, but still free of charge in Australia, Belgium, Canada, Cyprus, Denmark, Greece, Hong-Kong, Israel, Portugal, the United Kingdom, Spain, and Hungary.
Nepal has banned surrogacy for foreigners since 2015. But free surrogacy does not exist there: it is masked by expense reimbursements and whatever else they manage to make it a dismal source of income for destitute or immigrant women.
In fact, the website of the said Cypriot clinic reads, “Some women are generous and willing to give birth to a child for anyone else without wanting anything in return. However, generally, the receiving family must pay a surrogacy fee, in addition to covering the expenses that the pregnancy incurs.
This procedure is legal in many countries. Cyprus has become particularly suitable for this purpose. Its qualified doctors, technologically advanced clinics, and large numbers of women who desire surrogates at a reasonable price make Cyprus a surrogacy paradise.”
In Ireland, which is poised to become one of these havens, there will be a conference in September with this Cypriot clinic as one of its “gold” sponsors. Even gold is no longer gold, but what now remains of normalcy. Romanian playwright and essayist Eugéne Ionesco (1909-1994), in his play Le roi se meurt, said as early as 1962: “There is nothing normal anymore since the abnormal has become the norm.”
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