ReportStay in Ukraine and risk their lives as well as that of the baby they are carrying, or take refuge in Poland, Spain or France and have to give birth where surrogacy is illegal? Since the invasion of their country by Russia, Marina, Tatiana, Kate, Yullia find themselves faced with a terrible dilemma.
It is an ordinary two-storey pavilion in a residential area on the outskirts of Poznan in western Poland. The only thing that sets it apart is its unfinished appearance. The walls are bare, the concrete blocks still visible. Until then, there were only men in this house. Ukrainian construction workers who lived far from their families. They met in the evening, as in a home for immigrant workers, to share a meal, a moment of rest, in basic comfort.
But, for a few days, at the entrance, about thirty pairs of shoes clutter the landing. They belong to Ukrainian families who fled the war and who now live here. Since the start of the Russian invasion on February 24, more than 2.8 million displaced people have crossed the Polish border, making this country the first land of refuge for refugees from Ukraine.
Several thousand births
Marina arrived in mid-March with her son, Kirilo, 6, his brother’s wife and 4-year-old niece. They share two beds in a small bedroom on the top floor of the house. And, with the rest of the household, shared bathroom and kitchen.
Like all those who left Ukraine overnight, Marina lives in uncertainty and the pain of exile. She is also worried because she is pregnant and has not been able to do an ultrasound for two months while she is expecting twins. At the city’s refugee reception centre, she was given the contact details of a Russian-speaking gynecologist who will finally be able to examine her.
But Marina experiences stress that no doctor can relieve. The children she has been carrying for six months are not hers. And she doesn’t know under what conditions she will have to give birth to them, if she can legally get rid of them, if their parents will be recognized as such, if they will consider that she has respected the terms of the contract that binds them. Marina is 32 years old. She is a surrogate mother. And surrogacy is prohibited in Poland.
In Ukraine, the practice has been legal since 2002. No official figures say so, but it is estimated that several thousand births take place each year which allow Chinese, European, Australian or American parents to start a family despite their infertility. . The cost of the program is around 40,000 euros. When a child is born as a result of surrogacy, his surrogate mother abandons her rights over him and it is the so-called “intended” parents who appear on the Ukrainian birth certificate.
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