Surrogacy, in the spotlight for the war in Ukraine

The war in Ukraine has these couples, who are in this process, in suspense. As the associations that defend surrogacy explain, “we are concerned about the situation of pregnant women and the children born: what conditions are they in?”

For Rita Radl, sociologist: “the main problem is to commercialize, to turn women’s bodies into merchandise.” At this time, images of basements in kyiv with newborn boys and girls have emerged, awaiting the arrival of their parents and with volunteer nurses who take care of them.

“Our nightmare is that something could happen to them. Movements are restricted and we lack diplomatic support. We think about the safety of pregnant women and children & rdquor ;, says Jose Hidalgo, spokesperson for the Platform for the Protection of Children Born in Georgia and Ukraine (Apingu). Ask governments for help. This situation puts the dilemma of surrogacy in the spotlight once again.

“Right now we can go in. The Ukrainian police have accepted the surrogacy agreement as a valid title to prove a legitimate reason for entering Ukrainian territory. But with the chaos that exists… the fact that one family has managed to enter does not mean that they will all enter. The difficulty is to go out, we need some type of accreditation & rdquor ;, account Jose Hidalgofrom Alicante, spokesperson for the Platform for the Protection of Children Born in Georgia and Ukraine (Apingu).

– How could the issue of traveling to Ukraine and return be resolved?

-The entrance does not seem especially difficult, the especially complicated thing is going to be the exit. For the exit you will have to present a Ukrainian or Spanish accreditation, but something must be presented. The Spanish authorities are in a position to issue us the travel documentation with greater agility. We want to shorten the time.

– To what authority would it correspond?

–Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Spanish embassy displaced in Warsaw.

-They are upset?

-Yes. The Government of Spain stood us up in 2020, with the difficulties that arose with the issue of the coronavirus. Children accumulated in a nursery was an image that went around the world, now it is being reproduced with a ‘cradle bunker’. That was a staging created by ‘subrophobic’ governments to stage a children’s store, which is how they want surrogacy to be perceived. This is another issue: there is an ideological background. But we do have that distrust, that we are not given the necessary support.

-Ukraine has allowed surrogacy for years…

– Apart from allowing it, it regulates it. Let’s see, from an ethical point of view, the dilemma is that people’s situation of poverty can be abused. But if we don’t want this process to be resorted to in a country other than yours, to be regulated in Spain, for example, give me an alternative. Right now, for example, we are seeing how they devour us on social networks, with harassment, humiliation, insults… For a sector of Twitter we are ‘the children’s buyers’.

-You always speak of pregnant mothers, you do not accept other terms…

–We neither accept them nor talk to those who do use them. Like when you say ‘rent belly’. We reject this expression because it objectifies the pregnant woman: it does not value her.

–What do you think about it being an economic issue for pregnant women?

-It is that perhaps that situation of poverty does not exist. It also depends on each person, if they are more or less involved in the process. There are more trusting people and other people who in the interview ask about the income level of the surrogate mother, to choose her or reject her. So, it already depends on the level of information with which you access the process. In Ukraine, the woman gets a large compensation. With it, for example, he manages to buy a home at an early age. For us, with 30-year mortgages, it is impossible. Vulnerability is normally thought of, but different profiles enter into this process.

– They claim equal treatment for boys and girls.

-Yes, equal treatment for Spanish children and that the institutions do not penalize our children. Help us. We want to protect them because this is a situation that is very easy to lead to bullyingin bullying.

It creates differences between countries (rich and poor), between social classes and turns women into a “commercial object”, into a simple “pregnant body”. Rita Radlfeminist, sociologist, professor and researcher (USC), has always rejected surrogacy.

-The Spanish parents who are in a process with pregnant mothers in Ukraine, one of the main countries that allows surrogacy, are in suspense. What do you think?

–It is a minor problem considering the aggressions and the military intervention that Ukraine is suffering at the moment and that affects the women and men of this country in a cruel way, if possible, especially the children, but also the women. women, men, people have to flee, hide, cannot sleep… an unprecedented violation of their rights and human rights that will be inscribed in their bodies and identities for the rest of their lives…

-In Spain it is prohibited. Differences between countries and between women of different countries and classes?

–Yes, of course, differences between rich and poor countries. This issue refers to a political and social problem that requires other solutions.

– Do you think it should be banned in all?

-It would be a desirable issue, but at the same time it would be necessary to think about other measures of social justice to put an end to the great differences between countries in terms of economic wealth and the use of resources.

-Feminism normally rejects it.

–Yes, because of the vision of the instrumentalization of women, reducing them to being a mere mercantile object, to being and becoming again a simple “gestating body”.

It is complex from an ethical and emotional point of view. Why?

–Because pregnancies seem to induce the establishment of a relationship between the fetus and the pregnant woman and her environment, interhuman relationships are established, loaded with affections and emotions, an issue that can also hinder the detachment of the mother after childbirth. Even though this issue actually depends on a conception and social construction around pregnancy, it is a fact. There is also the ethical-legal issue, although it is regulated as it is in some countries, sometimes problems arise regarding the legal meaning of filial ties.

-What is the main problem?

–The main problem of surrogacy is market, turn into a commodity, Women’s body. A woman “rents” “only” her body, but since the body is not dissociable from the person, from their identity and their integrity, women are commercialized and instrumentalized as persons and subjects that they are.

-Power, inequality…?

–I think it is a problem of inequality, of inequalities between countries and social groups/classes, of verticalities and of a power that results from this verticality/inequality, if possible, of poverty versus capitalist wealth…rich countries and poor. Despite the fact that it is said that it is not “paid & rdquor; Because of the services, this process has a cost, a poor woman cannot afford it.

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– Of subjugation of women?

– I understand that yes, that it is also a form of subjugation of women, since the vision or social imaginary of women only contemplates the mercantile utility of their body. Women’s identity is again reduced to merely an instrument.