Surrogates are substitutes for needs that cannot be dispensed with. The need to become parents, for sterile hetero couples, homosexual couples or singles, can be satisfied through the practice of the rented uterus. But not in Italy. And not even in other European countries. So singles or couples who want a child take a flight to Ukraine, India, Russia or the United States, they pay – depending on the country – and the desire becomes reality. Here is a succinct map of the countries where surrogacy is legal. WHERE IT IS ALLOWED
The choice to fly to one country rather than another is based on the fact that support gestation follows, where legalized, different rules. In the Czech Republic, the Netherlands, Romania and Armenia, the practice is “tolerated”, therefore without explicit regulation and carried out with stringent criteria only in public structures. In India, Cambodia, Thailand, Russia and Mexico, women can rent their uterus but not donate it: intended parents have to pay. In Brazil, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand and England, surrogacy is only allowed if the expectant mother does not receive any payment. The United States is the only country that authorizes both practices: both for financial compensation and pro bono. In other countries of the world, the practice is prohibited. HOW MUCH DOES IT COST
For those who choose the United States, as in the case of Nichi Vendola , the cost of having a child, writes the New York Times , is between 100 and 170 thousand dollars; in Mexico, as we always read in the New York newspaper, the price drops to 64 thousand dollars (the biological mother, of these, receives 14). Foreign Affairsinstead he speaks of the situation in India, a country where the sector grinds 400 million dollars a year, with over 3 thousand specialized clinics. But New Delhi has recently chosen to limit surrogacy “tourism”. A woman carrying a child of a foreign couple – about 20% of the total – will be paid seven times more than one of an Indian couple. Thailand has also restricted the possibility of using the rented uterus only to couples with at least one Thai component.
But who, in the old continent, for geographical and economic reasons, wants a child, chooses – more and more – the East. Vladimir Putin ‘sit is considered among the most permissive countries: there are no limits for heterosexual or homosexual couples and it is possible to buy both eggs and gametes. On the Russian site surrogacy.ru – in six languages - “we celebrate the goodness of local surrogate mothers and advise against renting a Ukrainian uterus”. And this is because in Ukraine it costs little – about 50 thousand euros, writes L’Espresso – but a marriage certificate is necessary: gays and singles are excluded, not like Russia. THE SITUATION IN ITALY
In Italy, the practice of renting the uterus is prohibited by law 40 of 2004 which punishes “the marketing of gametes or embryos and the subrogation of motherhood”. Although we do not have certain data, it is estimated that every year 200 Italian couples, 90% straight, resort to this practice. The judicial troubles, on return, can be different and concern only some countries.
In the United States and Canada, children have citizenship and passport at birth, so they have no problem transcribing birth certificates. In Russia and Ukraine, children are born stateless: they have no citizenship until they acquire the Italian one. This can be acquired by transcribing the birth certificate to the civil status with an authorization from the consulate. With this they can leave the territory in which they were born. The consulate, however, during the procedure can report to the prosecutor the suspicion that it is a rented uterus, and, upon returning to Italy, couples are subject to criminal proceedings for “alteration of birth status”. This offense is punishable by imprisonment from 3 to 10 years.
But the punishment is actually rarely inflicted. Since 2004 there have been only 30 cases in which a criminal trial has been reached. WHAT EUROPE SAYS
In the European Union, supportive gestation is not allowed in most countries. However, Brussels policy seems to encourage the opposite trend: to protect the child even if by doing so it facilitates the couple who illegally use the rented uterus. In 2015 there is a case that has made jurisprudence in our country: the European Court of Human Rights condemns Italy for not having recognized the status of legitimate child to a child, stolen from the couple, born abroad with the surrogate.
