The state Duma Committee on family, women and children recommended to reject the bill to ban surrogacy, reports TASS.
The document was submitted to the Parliament by the member of the Federation Council Anton Belyakov in March. The explanatory Memorandum States that this reproductive technology should be banned “until that time, while in Russia there is no developed a new, integrated approach to the institution of surrogate motherhood, equally protects the rights and interests of children, surrogate mothers and potential parents.”
Belyakov noted that at present this service is carried out according to the ordinary civil contract that does not guarantee the strict implementation of the rights and obligations of its parties. “Biological parents can take the newborn from the hospital only after the surrogate mother will agree to it. This often leads to the fact that the surrogate mother begins to blackmail the biological parents,” he cited the example of the Senator.
Senator Elena Mizulina, who advocated criminal penalties for those involved in surrogacy on a commercial basis, supported the initiative Belyakov, reports RIA Novosti. The exception, she said, can be done for those cases when it is the only opportunity for couples to have biological children.
Surrogacy is a reproductive technology which involves the incubation of artificially fertilized egg (embryo) one woman in the uterus of another.