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A Nine-Month Mother: Surrogate Motherhood will Help to Solve the Demographic Problem The Interviewed Person: K.N. Svitnev Date: 08.12.2006

The state demographic programme is called the fifth National Priority Project. But the disputes over the so-called "maternity capital" still persist.

Konstantin Svitnev, expert of the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology thinks that the surrogate mothers will help to improve the Russian birth-rate.

In Vitro Country

"Rossiiskaya Gazeta": Do you really think that the situation may be saved by reproductive technologies, i.e. surrogate programmes?

Konstantin Svitnev: I would like to remind you that with the help of the Assisted Reproductive Technologies (ART) over three million children in the world have been born. This is the population à whole country. Meanwhile, out of 42 million Russian families 47% are childless. 15% of families do not have children due to medical reasons. I am not speaking about the millions of single persons of reproductive age who can not become parents because of the faults in the Russian law. ART and surrogate motherhood are now the only way out for millions of Russian people who wish to have their own child.

RG: Does the state support surrogate programmes or do the parent have to rely on themselves?

Svitnev: In Russia the compulsory insurance does nit cover the infertility treatment. Only recently in-vitro fertilization was allocated some 15 billion rubles per year. This may change the demographic situation to the better. By the way, such practice exists in the foreign countries. Thus, in Germany the insurance company pay for all these costs. In Italy infertility treatment is fully covered by the state. In Austria the state pays for six in-vitro fertilization attempts, while in Hungary and Denmark it pays for three.

Nowadays there is much talk about the so-called "maternity capital". But attracting with this money the women who can (but do not want to) give birth to a child, we receive no guarantees that the child will be long wished for and will receive proper education. The childless couples, however, love their child even before it is born anâ dream about it. why don't we give this money to them? The cost of three in-vitro fertilization attempts in Russia (this is usually the number of attempts required for pregnancy) in a middle-class clinic will amount to this sum of 250,000.

A Flat for a Child

RG: And if in-vitro fertilization is òå a way out? How many Russians can afford surrogate motherhood?

Svitnev: It is difficult to tell the exact price: there are no minimum or maximum figures. Many have an agreement with their relatives, acquaintances or friends. The first surrogate mother in our country was the friend of the biological parents. She received quite a significant compensation - a big flat in Saint-Petersburg. There were cases when children were carried for free. The most important case happened in the South African Republic: a 48-year-old grandmother gave birth to her three grandchildren. But in Russia they do not have trust in the grandmothers: according to the Ministry of Health's Order, only a woman up to 35 who has already had her own children may become a surrogate mother.

Mother's Audition

RG: Where should one look for a surrogate mother? Is there a state bank of physically and psychologically healthy women one could count on?

Svitnev: The serious issues related to surrogate motherhood started to be discussed not so long ago in our country. And only private companies are involved. First the agreements started to be prepared and appropriate clinics searched. Then they started to help finding a relevant woman and ensuring legal relations between the surrogate mother and the parents - up to the birth of the child.

RG: What's the procedure for audition?

Svitnev: A good company usually has a regional representatives network who organize the search and primary examination of the candidates.

RG: What examinations do the women undergo? Is there a chance to have a child born from a woman who has AIDs or STD?

Svitnev: A list of compulsory tests and examinations set forth in the 67th Order of the Ministry o Health is extensive. First time the future mothers are examined at the clinic where they are registered then in Moscow. And often the results of the local analyses are not confirmed. At a second investigation hepatitis and veneral diseases are often discovered. There was a case when a young woman proved to have blood cancer. So, only 20% of all candidates are shortlisted.

Right from the Gym

RG: In adoption there is big chance that the child will have persons with psychological problems among his relatives. Are surrogate mothers examined by a psychiatrist?

Svitnev: By all means. Moreover, the on-staff psychologists work with a woman. The future surrogate mother should understand that a whole year of her life will be dominated by bearing other person's child, which is even more responsible than bearing one's own child. She should keep to a correct diet and regime, be ready to move. But the main thing here is to realize that you are no more than a baby-sitter here, to which the legal parents entrusted their child for nine months.

RG: DO the future parents pass any psychological tests? A fashion for surrogate children grown like in a hatcher without giving up the usual morning tennis has already spread among the exclusive villa dwellers...

Svitnev: If during an examination in the reproduction clinic it is discovered that a woman is absolutely healthy and can give birth to a child herself, she will not be accepted on the programme. The psychological (i.e. the pregnancy fear) or social reasons are not grounds for surrogate programmes. But in Russia any woman can have an abortion at late gestation term sue to social reasons. Why not allow women having their own social reasons to give birth to a child through a surrogate mother? Is a murder more legitimate than a birth?

Why can a Child have Bad Nature?

RG: The psychogeneticists have not yet come to a conclusion, what influences a person most: the genes or the environment. And what if the child takes after his mother?

Svitnev: Some say that there is the surrogate's mother's blood in the veins of the child This is absolutely unscientific point of view. Their blood systems are not in touch at all. By the way, the are investigations concerning twins who were separate in early childhood. And they often tend to have the same habits and even chose cars of the same colour and make. The main role play the genes, after all.

RG: What legal traps are in front of the couple who decided to entrust giving birth to their heir to another woman?

Svitnev: Honestly, they are quite powerless in accordance with our laws. As pr te Family Code of the RF (p. 4 of Sect. 51) these people can be registered as the child's parents only upon consent of the woman who gave birth to the child. However, the surrogate mother can not withdraw her consent later on.

RG: Then there is much place for different blackmailing, isn't there?

Svitnev: Surrogate mother can really use the child as the instrument for blackmailing and extortion, for example, to inflate the fee up to a three-room flat in Moscow...

RG: Have there been any such cases in Russian legal practice?

Svitnev: The parents are not interested in telling everybody how their child came to this world. That is why, there were no publicized cases. By the way, if the selection of the candidate and the support of the surrogate programme is done by a reliable company, such situation may never exist. I remember a reverse case, when a case relating to surrogate motherhood was brought to court. A woman gave birth to a child with cardiac malformation, and the parents refused to take the child or pay the specified compensation...

"Substandard" Child

RG: So the hiring parents refused to take the "substandard" child. If it were healthy, they would "buy" it… So what came of the bargaining?

Svitnev: The court ruled to dismiss the surrogate mother's suit. It relied on the recommendations of the European Council on Bioethics as of 1989.

RG: So she was left with nothing: an unhealthy child and no compensation?

Svitnev: The European Council recommended to "implement surrogate programmes for free".

RG: In Europe commercial surrogate motherhood is prohibited?

Svitnev: Russian law, however imperfect it may be, is much more progressive than in the EU countries. In Germany, Italy and France surrogate motherhood is entirely prohibited. Where it I not prohibited, the surrogate mothers are not allowed to derive any profit out of it. For example, in Great Britain a compensation to the woman may not exceed ten thousand pounds: this sum may compensate for the losses in salary, payment of the baby-sitter for her own children, transportation costs. The expenses of surrogate mothers are strictly controlled - so that they could not make use of any "extra" money. And behind it is the pretext that the surrogate motherhood is "immoral" and "exploits women".

RG: I would not say immoral, but there certainly are some specifics.

Svitnev: What is immoral about emergence of a new life? Women's exploitation? For participation in this programme surrogate mothers obtain approximately four hundred thousand rubles. Forty-five thousand per each month. Is this exploitation? Maybe they would better lay railway sleepers or asphalt?

Bearing a child is a most responsible mission. Giving birth is an invaluable gift and this is the best thing a woman can do in her life. The most large-family surrogate mother, 39-year Carol Horlock from Great Britain - gave birth to nine children, including twins, and she made 8 families happy.

RG: But our women get good money for carrying children. This is good business...

Svitnev: Yes, commercial surrogate motherhood is fully legalized. All is freely permitted what is not prohibited. And a child bearing agreement refers to the paid services agreement. But the rather significant sum of money which the surrogate mother receives are of vital importance for her to improve her housing facilities, decently bring up her own children and, maybe, have another child of her own.

RG: What haps in the law restrict the use of this reproductive technology?

Svitnev: Our laws are really progressive, and better conditions for surrogate programmes can only be in Arkansas and California and, among the CIS countries, among Belorussia and Kazakhstan. But the surrogate motherhood itself is rarely mentioned in the law.

It is high time the Family Code should be amended to deprive the surrogate mother of the right to keep the delivered child to herself, thus stealing it from the legal parents. And there are some other examples. The existing Family Code does not acknowledge co-habitation. But people are living together. They are having common household, and are actually a family. But to use the surrogate mother's services they should be a registered couple: the parents who are not registered will simply not be registered in the birth certificate. Single men who want to have their own child have no access whatsoever to the ART. And finally, it is not clear what should be done with the surrogate child if his parents got divorced before his birth.

By the Way

In many countries there are different approaches to what is surrogate motherhood. In Russia a surrogate mother is one wgo carries a child which is biologically foreign to her.

But there is another approach - the so-called traditional surrogate motherhood, when instead of in-vitro fertilization with the transfer of the embryo of the biological parents to the surrogate mother artificial insemination of the surrogate mother is used. Abraham and Sarah are the first childless couple known to us. The first child for this couple was carried by Hagar, Sarah's servant.