11 Jun 2021 16:55

Bill banning foreigners from using surrogacy services in Russia submitted to State Duma

MOSCOW. June 11 (Interfax) - A group of United Russia party deputies and a senator have submitted a bill to the State Duma proposing banning foreign citizens from using surrogacy services in Russia.

The document, which was published on the State Duma's database on Friday, introduces a number of amendments to the Family Code, laws on health protection, and acts on civil status and on Russian citizenship related to surrogate motherhood and the citizenship of children born through surrogacy.

The bill requires that at least one of the future parents or a single person applying for surrogacy services in Russia should have Russian citizenship. However, in accordance with the initiative, any child born through surrogacy will acquire Russian citizenship by place of birth.

The bill also stipulates that the biological parents can be registered as the child's official parents only with the consent of the surrogate mother who gave birth to the child.

The explanatory note to the bill says that today, the Russian authorities cannot always properly follow the further lives of children born through surrogacy in Russia, because their foreign parents receive birth certificates at their state's consulate. The explanatory note lists a number of high-profile criminal cases opened into human trafficking and negligent homicide related to foreigners using surrogacy services in Russia. The mandatory acquisition of Russian citizenship by children born through surrogacy in Russia is expected to enable the Russian authorities to follow such children further through life.

"The introduction of a complete ban on foreign citizens and noncitizens using surrogacy services in Russia will in no way limit their rights to medical care and is not at odds with Russia's international law commitments," the explanatory note says.

The authors of the bill are State Duma Deputy Speaker Pyotr Tolstoy, Chairman of the Committee on Security and Corruption Control Vasily Piskaryov, member of the Committee on the Development of Civil Society and Public and Religious Organizations Nikolai Zemtsov, all of whom are members of United Russia, and Senator Margarita Pavlova of the Chelyabinsk region.