At least one surrogate mother from Georgia involved in the birth of a newborn baby to an Australian couple this month spent the bulk of her pregnancy in a dark flat, under prison-like conditions and ordered by her handler not to leave or talk to anybody.
“They have empty faces,’’ said one neighbour who lives next door, describing the young women, all of whom are pregnant or recovering from giving birth and believed to be from rural areas of Georgia.
The grim lives of these young women, some still teenagers, have been exposed with the eight-month investigation and extensive police raid of the Mediterranean Fertility Clinic in Chania, Crete this month.
While two Australian families have been able to take their newborns from the hospital and are finalising documents to allow them to obtain an Australian passport to fly home, the future of the surrogates – the victims in this extraordinary story – is unclear.
The women were housed in 14 different apartment blocks around Chania, and paid €200-€600 ($300-$1000) a month for expenses. A baby bonus – usually another €2000-€6000 – was paid upon delivery of a healthy baby. The total payments of around $10,000-$20,000 were promoted as a chance for surrogates to financially “get ahead” in their own country, but after having one baby they would be under pressure to become a surrogate again.
The intended parents, meanwhile, would face costs for the “altruistic surrogacy program” of more than $150,000 and in some cases more than $200,000.
Source: Subscribe to The Australian | Newspaper home delivery, website, iPad, iPhone & Android apps
Surrogacy is criminal how very sad for young women getting caught up in it.