Ms. Magazine | March 2, 2025
Inconsistent laws and regulations governing surrogacy in different countries have led to underground operations that enable unethical practices and exploitation––including in Turkey, Georgia, and Northern Cyprus.
Surrogacy in the News
Accusations Of Egg-Harvesting Rock Georgian Surrogacy Industry
February 13, 2025 | Radio Free Europe
Thai authorities are investigating claims from three Thai women, who say they traveled to Georgia under the pretense of surrogacy only to be forced into a Chinese crime syndicate’s “egg harvesting” operation. The Chinese company says they facilitate surrogacy arrangements with contracts and are not holding surrogates in Georgia against their will.
Easing restrictions: Swiss Federal Council announces a comprehensive reform of the Reproductive Medicine Act
February 10, 2025 | Progress Educational Trust
Switzerland will change its current regulations on reproductive medicine to allow egg donation and to expand access to gamete donation to unmarried couples, with certain conditions. Regulation will continue bans on embryo donation and surrogacy.
TV Review: The Philippines – Wombs for hire
February 3, 2025 | Progress Educational Trust
An episode of an Al Jazeera documentary series shows how surrogacy arrangements operate in the Philippines, where surrogacy is neither illegal nor regulated. It also shows what motivates some women to be surrogates and how they are vulnerable to exploitation.
There is an underground market for surrogacy eggs from Russian women in China
Global Voices | December 23, 2024
An investigation of ads on Russian social media that promoted free trips and thousands of dollars in compensation for Russian women to donate their eggs in China revealed the operation of an illegal, underground commercial egg donation enterprise between the countries.
Supreme Court to examine age limit in India’s surrogacy laws
Hindustan Times | January 7, 2025
In response to petitions, India’s Supreme Court has agreed to examine several aspects of the country’s 2021 surrogacy law, including a stipulation that intended mothers must be between the ages of 23 and 50.
Filipino surrogates receive royal pardon
PET | January 13, 2025
Thirteen women from the Philippines acting as surrogates in Cambodia were convicted under Cambodian human trafficking laws, but they received royal pardons and were taken back to the Philippines. Most are still pregnant while some were repatriated with children they birthed as a result of the surrogacy arrangements.
After months-long maternity benefits fight, parents who had child through surrogacy say their ‘hands are tied’
CBC | December 26, 2024
Parental benefits for some Canadian employees require that they provide documentation that they are pregnant, which leaves couples forming families via surrogacy ineligible. So far, efforts to change the policy, or to expand the federal definition of maternity benefits, have not succeeded.
Surrogacy reform moves up the agenda
The Society Law Gazette | December 16, 2024
The UK government and Law Commission met at the end of 2024 to discuss recommended reforms to UK surrogacy law made in 2023. The suggestions include creating a new avenue to legal parentage for domestic surrogacy arrangements.
Reproductive Futures: The Promises and Pitfalls of In-Vitro Gametogenesis
The Wire | December 15, 2024
In vitro gametogenesis––an experimental technique that creates eggs and sperm from other kinds of human cells––could be used in tandem with surrogacy, but the technique brings several ethical concerns.