Russian Federation Council votes to ban provision of surrogate mothers' services to foreigners
MOSCOW. Dec 14 (Interfax) - The Federation Council on Wednesday approved a bill that prohibits foreigners from using surrogate mothers' services in Russia.
Under the bill, only a Russian citizen can be a surrogate mother. The ban, however, will not apply to cases when it is an officially registered marriage between a Russian citizen and a foreigner "in order to prevent discrimination against the rights of a Russian citizen because of the spouse's citizenship," the bill's co-author, Chairman of the State Duma Committee on Security and Corruption Control Vasily Piskaryov, said.
An explanatory note to the bill said that one of the most important factors of the high latency of crimes against children in this sphere is that children born to surrogate mothers in Russia do not acquire Russian citizenship because both persons who are a child's biological parents and are named on the birth certificate are not Russian citizens.
Under the bill, such children shall acquire Russian citizenship if they were born to or were carried by a surrogate mother as of the day when the ban on foreigners and non-citizens using the services of surrogate mothers in Russia entered into force.
These rules will apply to situations where potential parents or a single woman unable to carry a pregnancy to term or give birth for medical reasons are foreign citizens or non-citizens.
A child born to a surrogate mother in Russia will also receive Russian citizenship if potential parents or a single woman lost Russian citizenship as of the day of the state registration of the child's birth.
The new rules will not hamper the departure of such children and their parents to their countries of residence, because the sole goal is to create additional mechanisms to protect Russian underage citizens, including those affected by crimes outside Russia, according to the explanatory note.
According to Piskaryov, the proposed ban is a last-choice measure, which is needed because after a child born to a surrogate mother in Russia leaves the country, the Russian state can no longer protect his or her rights. Besides, Russia cannot take all measures to ensure that potential foreign parents have no convictions for crimes against minors and to "make sure that their intentions are good."
"And many reports have been received from foreign countries about the unfortunate fate of children born to surrogate mothers who ended up in sexual slavery or were simply abused," he said.
The initiators of the bill are State Duma Deputy Speakers Pyotr Tolstoy and Anna Kuznetsova, Piskaryov, Chairperson of the Committee on Civil Society Development Olga Timofeyeva, and Federation Council member Margarita Pavlova.