Children’s Ombudsman of Tatarstan spoke out against surrogacy for genetically infertile couples: “They can be used to take children to organs”

The Commissioner for Children’s Rights in the Republic of Tatarstan, Irina Volynets, fears that if allowed, a new loophole will appear for exporting Russian babies abroad, selling them to organs or transferring them to LGBT couples and pedophiles.

Last December, the State Duma banned surrogacy for foreign citizens. It is also impossible to resort to it at the moment for Russian families where they are genetically infertile, that is, they cannot provide their own germ cells, both or one of the spouses. The child must be related to both the biological mother and father at the same time.

The State Council of Tatarstan sent to the Council of Legislators at the Federal Assembly a draft amendment to the federal law “On the Fundamentals of Protecting the Health of Citizens in the Russian Federation”. The document proposes to include a new clause 9.1 in Article 55 “Use of assisted reproductive technologies”, which will still allow the use of donor material (oocytes or sperm) for conception in surrogate motherhood.

In particular, legislators propose to remove such a ban when a woman is simultaneously diagnosed with “infertility of uterine origin (ICD10 – N97.2)” and “infertility associated with the absence of ovulation (ICD10 – N97.0)”.

The State Council emphasizes that here “the only possible option is a surrogacy program using donor oocytes.”

The second option is that a woman cannot bear a child, and a man has problems with spermogenesis. Therefore, they also cannot resort to the services of a surrogate mother. Such families are also asked to be removed from the ban.

“In this case, the embryo will have a genetic relationship with one of the potential parents (genetic mother or genetic father) who was able to provide their germ cells,” the explanatory note to the bill says.

Cannot hire a surrogate mother today and a single woman using donor eggs.

At the same time, we are talking only about situations when one woman provides the biomaterial, another woman carries and gives birth, and a third takes the baby. For IVF, donor biomaterial can be used, including for a single woman. Lonely man – no.

The deputies of Tatarstan considered that the liberalization of legislation in the field of the use of assisted reproductive technologies could contribute to the rise in the birth rate in Russia in the context of the demographic crisis.

– If this measure is implemented in practice, then any attacker can come to the Russian Federation, enter into a fictitious marriage and, with the help of a surrogate motherhood program, become the father of a Russian child, in order to then take him abroad for unknown purposes.

We, as the Russian side, do not have the opportunity to track the fate of such children, and even more so if necessary, to protect them, – Irina Volynets, children’s ombudsman, comments on the initiative of the deputies of the republican children’s ombudsman. – I think that this should not be allowed.

– But in our country it is forbidden to use surrogate motherhood for foreigners?

– So marriages with foreigners are not forbidden! If at least one of the parents is Russian, they have the right to use the surrogate program. There is no ban here. Therefore, with all understanding and sincere sympathy for infertile couples, we cannot risk the life and well-being of children who may be born as a result of changes in legislation.

As Commissioner for Children’s Rights, I cannot support a proposal to allow childless couples to have children through surrogacy programs if even one of the spouses is genetically infertile. Moreover, both. Children’s fates are at stake!

As the Commissioner, I defend the rights of future citizens of Russia, including the right to know their biological parents, you never know how fate will turn out – perhaps such children will need medical intervention, which is possible only with the use of genetically close donors, and they have such nearby will not be. Or, for example, a genetic disease is discovered, for the treatment of which a medical history of the parents is necessary.

– Let’s say that a man’s health is all right, and a woman does not have eggs and at the same time cannot bear a baby. According to the current legislation, now they cannot enter the surrogacy program so that the child is genetically related to at least one of the spouses – as a result, it turns out that it is much easier for a man to leave the family and find one that will give birth to him?

The woman will be abandoned and childless. And so she at least had a chance to raise a child from her husband. Such sad stories are found everywhere, unfortunately.

– Yes, at the moment such couples can only resort to adoption. I can sympathize with such a situation. This is a very big tragedy – when it is not possible to have children.

But laws must be adopted in the interests of the majority, which may include future children, whose lives can be used for selfish purposes. We remember the tragic stories of children who died because they were sold in advance for organs abroad.

There is one more point about which I want to say especially. These are married couples who managed to enter the surrogacy program, they already had preserved embryos when this ban was adopted. I think that such children still need to be given the opportunity to be born.