Colombian Laura Zúñiga gave birth to two children who are now growing up abroad with other parents who paid for “rent” her bellyan increasingly frequent practice in Colombia and which congressmen try to regulate.
“Hello, I would like to rent my womb, they pay me half when you test it [de embarazo] come out positive (and) the other half when it is born”, They say offers in Facebook groups like the one published by Zúñiga in 2019.
A single American saw the ad, paid it $15,000, and nine months later became a father through a so-called surrogate pregnancy. In 2022, Zúñiga, 40, repeated the experience for a Swiss client and received the same amount, in a country where the minimum wage is around US$250.
“I am an organ donor, a blood donor. And, well, I said: ‘I don’t want to have more children for myself, but it would be good to collaborate with someone else to carry out the process’”explained nursing assistant.
Far from the prohibitions in Europe and the high fees in some states of the United States where the procedure is legal, Colombia is a paradise for surrogacy due to low costs and a gap in legislation. In two states of Mexico it is regulated, the same as in Cuba, Uruguay and Brazil.
On the other hand, no law regulates the procedure in Colombia, which attracts singles, couples with fertility problems, homosexuals and those who for aesthetic or work reasons do not want to submit to the rigors of a pregnancy.
In Congress, parliamentarians from the ruling party frown upon the arrival of foreigners to later take the babies.
“Many people fear that Colombia could become a factory for children”, explained the left-wing congressman Alejandro Ocampo, who designed a bill that would regulate the payments and would even require that one of the parents who rent the womb be Colombian. It must be discussed in the legislature that began on July 20.
The Ministry of Health is working in parallel on another legislative proposal. In Colombia there are no official figures for children born through this practice.
Market
According to gynecologist Karin Franco, owner of a specialized clinic in Bogotá, in Colombia there are more experienced professionals in this type of procedure compared to the rest of Latin America.
He also notes an increase in demand after the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February last year, a favorite destination country for Europeans looking for surrogate mothers.
In addition, he says, the Colombian market offers better rates than those of the United States, where the price can rise above 100,000 dollars.
The lack of money motivates many Colombians to rent out their wombs: “Normally they are low-income women and so they will receive about 40 or 50 million pesos (about US$10,000)”said the specialist.
Around a dozen clinics in the Colombian capital offer assisted reproduction services, from fertilization to delivery. In most cases, the woman who puts her womb up for rent is not the biological parent of the children, that is, she has not provided the eggs.
Many clients use embryos obtained through in vitro fertilization and others go to “(egg) donors who go through a selection process and physical, infectious, genetic and psychological tests. For surrogate mothers, the process is similar.”Franco explained. Thus, a high rate of success in pregnancy is guaranteed, which is around 60-70%.
Rights
Andreas Abele-Rassuly and her husband- a gay couple living in Germany and tired of the “discrimination” in local adoption centers – tried to access a surrogate pregnancy in Albania, but the obstacles in the legislation of that European country scared them away.
They ended up in the Colombian capital thanks to the mediation of an Israeli company. They are now the parents of two children and consider the biological mothers of the minors as “part of the family”.
But this practice is showered with detractors. The lawyer María Cristina Hurtado denounces a violation of the rights of “thousands of women, boys and girls” that “they end up worth less in the hierarchy of rights” due to the “desire of a few”.
Congressman Alejandro Ocampo proposes moving to a model “altruistic” in which to the “surrogate mother” only the expenses of the pregnancy are reimbursed. It also proposes to veto this reproductive technique if at least one of the future parents is not Colombian.
Nadia Afanador, an expert lawyer in contracts of this type, criticized the bill for considering it “a detriment to foreigners.”
“The right to reproduction is a human right”affirmed Afanador, who, however, supports a law that prevents “abuses” and “commercial risks”.
Source: AFP
Source: Gestion
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