The Ministry of the Family announces a “working group under the coordination of the MFA” to find a solution in the case of Romanian children born to surrogate mothers in Kyiv
At the request of Freedom, the Ministry of Family, Youth and Equal Opportunities says it has already sent a request to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to set up a working group to “identify the best solutions, adapted to this time of crisis”, for children of Romanian citizens who were born in the maternity ward of the clinic in Kyiv, but also for Ukrainian surrogate mothers who are carrying the children of Romanian parents.
- A working group to include representatives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Justice, the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Family, Youth and Equal Opportunities, under the coordination of the MFA.
Libertatea reported in the last week about the case of children with Romanian parents who were already born in Kyiv from surrogate mothers or are about to be born in March-July. As Romanian law does not allow surrogacy, there are couples in Romania who use clinics in Ukraine to conceive a child using assisted human reproduction techniques.
Three children were already born to Romanian natural parents during the war in Ukraine, and are currently in Kyiv. Others are about to be born, according to both the Romanian authorities and the clinic’s representatives, in the next period, from surrogate mothers.
The representatives of the Biotexcom clinic, where the Romanians’ children are, say that one of the alternatives through which the parents can reunite with their children is for the Romanian families to arrive in Kyiv. A long and risky road. Another solution would be to transport the children to Chernivtsi, as a meeting point with their Romanian parents, but this option is not a safe one either. “It is dangerous to transport children from Kyiv to Chernivtsi,” says Lavinia Screnec, manager of the clinic’s Romanian department.
Contacted by Libertatea, the Ministry of Family said that the role of the working group would be to identify the best solutions for children and their families, but also to discuss the possibility of legislating surrogacy in Romania.
This working group will start discussions to identify a legally valid solution for amending the legislation in the sense that this type of procedure will be allowed in Romania in the future, taking into account the European provisions in the field.
Ministry of the Family:
The children’s documents are made in Chernivtsi
The clinic’s representatives said that the necessary documents to remove the children from Ukraine can be done at the Romanian Consulate General in Chernivtsi, but Lavinia Screnec says that to reunite them with their Romanian parents, they need help from the Romanian authorities and a humanitarian corridor.
The Ministry of Family and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in a response to Libertatea, say that “they will make every effort” to support these families and to carry out the “administrative procedures for transcribing Ukrainian birth certificates and issuing Romanian ones, as well as the necessary travel documents bringing children to Romania ”.
However, no Romanian authority has concretely explained how Romanian parents will reunite with their children born and currently in Kyiv, in the context of the war.
Instead, the Irish authorities managed to evacuate, on March 4, four babies born to surrogate mothers in Kyiv. Both Irish senators and ministers of foreign affairs and higher education were involved, according to the Irish Times. Israeli authorities also helped reunite parents with their children, according to Lavinia Screnec.
What would happen if surrogate mothers were born in Romania
As the legislation does not allow surrogacy in Romania, “if the birth does not take place in Ukraine and the registration of documents is not carried out by the competent Ukrainian civil registry services, the provisions of the legislation of this state are no longer applicable.”
Thus, “the surrogate mother will be included in the birth certificate as the natural mother of the child, and the Romanian citizens will no longer be able to be registered as parents in the Romanian civil status documents”.
This currently prevents surrogate mothers carrying children of Romanian parents from being able to give birth in Romania, safely, far from the war.
Source From: Libertatea
