Participants and professionals involved in the surrogacy industry are facing several Covid-19 pandemic challenges. Usually, a successful surrogacy arrangement performs under the best of circumstances, and in the best of times requires careful coordination between every individual involved including intended parents, surrogates, and medical, legal, and psycho-social teams. Inter-professional team effort gives a successful outcome.
In collaboration with fertility tourism, the surrogacy industry is expanded largely by including both national and international clients. Infertile couples from different countries have been issued visas and avail of the cross-broader surrogacy program.
But each of the steps involves in the surrogacy process requires planning. For that, the whole process is time-consuming.
Time is also required for searching for accessible national or international fertility clinics where knowledgeable professionals and infrastructure support the whole surrogacy process along with favorable laws and regulations with cooperative local government.
The surrogacy industry plays a role in identifying a prospective surrogate for international intended parents.
The surrogacy industry is also involved in coordinating the arrangement together with independent local counsel for each party, to reach an agreement to carry and deliver the child and be able to return to their home country after the birth of the child.
The surrogacy industry also has a responsibility to arrange for pre-birth or birth orders declaring the child’s legal parentage and secure a passport for the child to return with them to their home country.
But the Covid-19 pandemic has led to the shutting of borders, restricted travel, and kept families apart across the world. It’s also generated an inimitable difficulty for the surrogacy industry, leaving foreign parents unable to meet with their newborn babies.
Many surrogacy facilities need to arrange houses for such born babies whose parents have not been able to reach the country to take custody of their children.
Foreign parents are facing problems in issuing visas for International travel.
Not only International surrogacy but proceeding inter-country surrogacy also becomes difficult during this pandemic phase.
Surrogacy is considered an elective medical process. Currently, no such elective medical process is permissible to start.
The current crisis in healthcare facilities only allows serving for emergency medical cases.
Therefore, the surrogacy programs which will be about to start in the first quarter of 2020 are still pending even after passing half of 2021.
The surrogacy industry is facing a huge economic loss. Intended parents who are in waiting periods get emotionally disturbed.
Some of them are facing economic challenges also because of medical insurance issues.
Overall, in the present situation, the surrogacy industry becomes divested due to the Covid-pandemic.
Ravi Sharma is a self-motivated, successful entrepreneur and has a solid experience in the fertility segment. and he is the director at ARTbaby Global (ARThealthcare). He is a pharmacy graduate with post-graduation in business administration and has 14 years of rich experience in the field of infertility segment. He loves to write about IVF, Surrogacy, and other ART (assisted reproductive technology) news, issues, and updates. He is a Pharmacy graduate (B. Pharm) and M.B.A (marketing).
His most recent success includes the successful launch of the medical tourism company, ARTbaby, which offers treatment options for infertility, egg donation, and surrogacy. He likes spending time with his family and writing about various aspects of IVF surrogacy and donating eggs.