
Legal situation in Russia
Russia is a country where commercial surrogacy is regulated. According to its legislation, both married and unmarried heterosexual couples as well as single mothers are allowed to carry out surrogacy processes.
Although Russian law does not allow single men to carry out surrogacy processes, the Russian Constitutional Court case-law has, for many years, granted single parents the right to register their children born through surrogacy, so they are registered without any problems.
Prices are one of the main advantages that this country offers us, which are much cheaper than those in the United States of America. The geographical closeness with our country also leads many couples to choose this destination for carrying out a surrogacy process.
1. Russian legislation on surrogacy
Surrogacy medical issues are governed by Order number 67 of the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation on the application of assisted reproduction techniques in the treatment of female and male infertility" of February 26th, 2003. In Russia, surrogate mothers may be who have given their voluntary consent to take part in the programme and meet the following requirements: they must be between 20 and 35 years old; they must have a healthy child of their own; they must be mentally and physically healthy. Only gestational surrogacy is allowed.
However, the Russian legislation has been subject to a process of flexibility: although the intended parents were, at first, supposed to be married as established by section 51 paragraph 4.2 of the Family Code, by section 16 paragraph 5 of the Federal Law Number 143-FZ of 1997, on Acts of Civil Status and by the Law number 5487-I of 1993 on the Citizens’ Health Protection in all known cases brought before Courts, the Courts have compelled civil registry authorities to register children born by surrogacy in favour of single persons or unmarried couples, and this has recently been admitted by the new Federal Law Number 323-FZ, on Basics of Health Protection of the Citizens in the Russian Federation, passed in November, 2011, in force since January 1st, 2012 which repeals the Act from 1993.
2. Russian Civil Registry Office
Only in the case of single men he surrogate mother appears in the birth certificate, although she has already lost her rights over the child.
3. Type of surrogacy
The genetic material is either provided by the intended parents or by a donor. When we turn to a donor, this can only be an egg donor since this country lacks a judgement paternity is determined by filiation and the father must prove his biological relationship with the baby. The donor can be either anonymous or chosen.
The donors are usually women between 18 and 26 years old, healthy, so they undergo a strict medical control to ensure their health.
Advantages and disadvantages of Russia
ADVANTAGES | DISADVANTAGES |
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Married people, common-law couples, single women. Single men are not expressly recognized in the law, but they are not forbidden either. Thus, they can carry out the process. | A judgement is not obtained but a Hague apostilled birth certificate. The child will be registered with the father’s details and once in the intended parent’s home country, the mother must adopt the child, which is a procedure with no difficulties. |
The cost of the process is much lower than in the USA. Most of the programmes range between 125,000 and 200,000 euros in total. | |
Programmes with unlimited number of embryo transfers and IVFs. At a fixed-price you can be sure that you will become parents. | |
Some programmes have several insurances: health insurance for the surrogate mother, death insurance for the surrogate mother or donor, death insurance for the baby with a programme restart, etc., so that whatever happens you can make your dream of becoming parents come true. | |
It is possible to have a programme with gender selection | |
Closeness: 4 hours and a half flight time |
