Volodin demands a ban on the sale of Russian babies abroad

At eight o’clock on Sunday morning on Mother’s Day, State Duma Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin suddenly became preoccupied with the issue of a ban on surrogacy for foreigners in Russia. What he immediately gave birth to a post in his TG channel: “Child trafficking is unacceptable … Children must be protected.”

If we take into account that this initiative was constantly put on the brakes, and in May 2022, after the first reading, the bill was completely sent for revision to a distant box, then why would such zeal suddenly come about?

Moreover, Volodin promised to immediately adopt the law in early December.

In general, this is, of course, illogical. On the one hand, to proclaim an uncompromising struggle against the “collective West”, but at the same time still bear and sell children born in our country and from Russian women abroad.

About 22 thousand surrogate babies, according to official data, are produced in Russia a year. How many of them then go abroad? No one knows for sure – whether the statistics are classified, or it doesn’t matter to everyone.

Just as we do not know what happens to these children abroad afterwards. There are no such legal mechanisms to track their fate. Only occasionally does information emerge about criminal cases involving Russian babies born with the help of new reproductive technologies.

I must say that the illegal turnover of the surrogate business, according to the same Volodin, is estimated at 2 billion euros a year. Not an arms dealer, but not bad either. You can be proud, Russia is the leader in surrogate motherhood in the world. And even over the past nine months, despite the sanctions imposed on Russia in all sectors, including the sale of resources, the field of surrogacy is still quiet and smooth. Not a single ban. As the agencies worked, they continue to work.

The fact is that Russia really has no competitors in this area. Since in most Western European countries this technology is completely prohibited for moral and legal reasons. There are too many questions, including ethical ones, that have no answers at this stage in the development of civilization.

Over the past two years, several cases of death of surrogate children have been recorded in the Russian Federation, which, for various reasons, could not be picked up by customers. All the dead surrogate children were children for export. Dozens of unclaimed babies were kept locked in rented apartments. Legally, they were no one’s children at all. The perpetrators of this crime, by the way, have already been convicted.

“If we are a sovereign and independent state, then, of course, I am sure such a law will be adopted,” said Priest Fyodor Lukyanov, chairman of the Patriarchal Commission on Family Affairs, Protection of Motherhood and Childhood, at a recent press conference on this bill.

As the vice-speaker of the State Duma, one of the authors of the bill Pyotr Tolstoy, stated in his turn at the same event, the executive authorities “with far-fetched arguments” hinder this law most of all.

Since the bill proposes to endow all children born to surrogate mothers in the Russian Federation with Russian citizenship. But “… the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Justice of Russia oppose granting citizenship of the Russian Federation to a child born from a surrogate mother – a citizen of the Russian Federation on the territory of our country. What does this mean? A woman gives birth to a child, he does not receive citizenship of the Russian Federation by birthright on the land of Russia, then he receives the citizenship of a nominal father and travels with him outside the Russian Federation, ”explained Tolstoy. According to him, in this case, the border guards cannot track the movement of such children, and the consular departments and representative offices of the Russian Federation abroad do not have the right to control what will happen to them further.

Actually, because of the confusion with the legislation, even the foreigners themselves, who came to Russia for a surrogate pregnancy, often fall victim to scammers, give unimaginable millions to surrogate mothers, and receive nothing in return. There are cases when Chinese couples were deceived, who are still seeking punishment for those responsible.