The World Briefly

June 21, 2023

Baby Wars

Georgia

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The Georgian government is working on a draft law to regulate surrogacy and in vitro fertilization more strictly, a move that has sparked concern among the country’s surrogacy industry and foreign parents seeking to have children via surrogacy from the South Caucasus nation, Radio Free Europe reported.

Details about the bill have not been specified, but the new rules would limit surrogacy to the “principle of altruism only.” This means that surrogates would only be able to receive compensation for their time and expenses rather than a commercial fee.

The draft legislation would also bar Georgian women from carrying babies for foreign biological parents after 2023 – meaning that surrogacy services would be restricted to domestic couples only.

The proposed changes come after Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili expressed concern about the fertility sector’s impact on Georgian women, and the possibility of children being adopted by same-sex couples abroad.

But many Georgian surrogacy and egg donation agencies were shocked by the move and questioned the rationale behind the ban. They emphasized that safeguards are already in place to prevent same-sex couples from taking children born through surrogacy out of the country.

They cautioned that the changes could result in a decline in the amount of compensation surrogates receive, as the demand for surrogacy services may decrease due to the ban on foreign couples.

Analysts noted that the proposed law aligns with the rise of conservative influence in Georgia, driven by the Georgian Orthodox Church’s stance on LGBTQ rights and traditional family values.

Georgia has been one of the few nations that allow both commercial and altruistic surrogacy. Internationally, nations have different approaches to surrogacy, with some legalizing it and others banning it outright.

This story originally appeared in the June 21, 2023 newsletter, Contextual Legacies.