Is surrogacy in a foreign country safe?

In some countries, the surrogacy process is well-regulated. People belonging to such countries can avail of domestic surrogacy. However, the purpose of international travel for opting cross broader surrogacy is also common nowadays. The reason for cross-border surrogacy varies. Some intended parents prefer cross-border surrogacy to find out a suitable match, but some need to travel outside the national border for the surrogacy banned in their own country.

Patients who prefer to travel cross-border for their fertility treatment may not be satisfied with the available domicile ART services, the quality of care offered by domestic ART services, the available treatment option, and the waiting period to obtain the service. 

Survey data reported that patients from Southeast and Middle East Asia and Latin America where ART clinics are not very equipped have preferred to travel cross-border to obtain the essential treatment. Another reason for cross-border traveling is an inadequate supply of donor gametes and gestational services in the departure countries, which are unable to meet the requirement. Some countries also have stringent policies on anonymity and compensatory and regulatory means.

The payment restriction to the gamete donors and gestational surrogates in countries reduce the accessibility of the ART service, which influences cross-border traveling to the countries where payment method are allowed. Countries, where disclosure of donor identity is mandatory also trigger cross-border traveling. In countries like the United Kingdom, Sweden, and Norway, anonymous gamete donation is a factor that influences the decision-making of patients seeking care abroad. Almost 80% of women prefer to travel to Canada to search for anonymous donor eggs for ART.

The expectation of high-quality treatment also promotes cross-border reproductive care, as the patient believes clinics abroad have more efficient professionals, modern technology, and more equipped tools and specialized services that provide the least scope for treatment failure. Infertile couples have also experienced less waiting time to cross border reproductive care than national health care support.

Surrogacy aims to obtain a successful result. Some intended parents may travel to international countries for better medical facilities. However, intended parents need to collect detailed information on medical facilities along with the success rate of surrogacy of a clinic (which may domestic or international) to obtain the best possible fertility treatment.   

Countries like America have followed a standard reproductive technique with high-quality clinical infrastructure. Medical professionals also have expertise in this process. Therefore, the chance of failure of surrogacy is very less in such developed countries. However, the financial difference is significant in comparison to American states with other countries. And for this reason, many American intended parents also prefer to cross broader surrogacy to minimize the treatment budget.

International Commercial Surrogacy now becomes common in countries where commercial surrogacy is banned.  For example, many States in America have banned surrogacy. Therefore, intended parents from any such American State can contact surrogacy centers located in Mexico, Vietnam, or Kenya for commercial surrogacy. The whole arrangement is termed International Commercial Surrogacy. The term ‘commercial’ is used in such a type of surrogacy, as the women who agree to carry a baby for them get compensation for this job. 

In international commercial surrogacy, a proper legal agreement has been made between the intended parents and the surrogate. Legal personnel discuss all the written points in the contract and provide the understanding of each point to both the intended parents and the surrogate to mitigate all ethical issues before signing the contract. The following are certain concerns for cross broader International surrogacy:

• International commercial surrogacy is an expensive process, as a huge compensation need to pay to commercial surrogates.
• In International commercial surrogacy, no personal relationship is present between the intended parents and the surrogate.
• Surrogacy service providers play an important role in International commercial surrogacy.
• Strong legal and ethical concerns are maintained in International commercial surrogacy depending upon the country-specific law.
• There is no personal relationship present between intended parents and surrogates, so the negligible scope for the development of emotional stress builds up.