Surrogacy in Europe

Surrogacy motherhood in Europe

Surrogacy in the United Kingdom, Belgium, Cyprus, Czech Republics

These are countries where you periodically hear about surrogacy. Some have it regulated only for resident citizens of the country, or they have no regulation at all, so they are not governed by a surrogacy law, but by their own civil code and corresponding laws.

Surrogacy in the United Kingdom

Surrogacy procedures in the UK are only carry out for British nationals. In addition, the surrogate mother has the right to withdraw and keep the baby.

Surrogacy in Belgium

Surrogacy in Belgium has no legislation, so obviously the child born there is Belgian. However, the law does not allow financial compensation to the surrogate mother. Any contract signed between the parents and the surrogate is null and void. Recently, the Belgian authorities have instructed their consulates not to register children born through surrogacy.

Surrogacy in Cyprus

For more information visit our PROGRAMS IN CYPRUS section.

Surrogacy in Cyprus

Some surrogacy agencies carry out their surrogacy processes in the Czech Republic, having the children born in third countries. There is no legislation allowing surrogacy in the Czech Republic, so once again we are in the realm of legal loopholes and shadows.
However, in 2022, the registry office in Prague stopped registering children born through surrogacy. When the registry office is contacted, it notifies the police, who question the commissioning parents and the surrogate mother separately. Some agencies recommend lying to the registry, which can lead to an offence of misrepresentation to a public official.

The police intervened in this matter, with the arrest of several doctors involved in the process, which came to be called OPERATION SPANIEL. For all these reasons, these types of programs are not recommended.
You can find more information on the following link:
https://www.seznamzpravy.cz/clanek/domaci-kauzy-operace-spanel-v-praze-se-prodavaji-deti-vyrobene-na-zakazku-203870

We must understand that the parents commit two crimes:
Lying to a public official, when they pass off the surrogate as their girlfriend.
Falsification in a public document, when they make a declaration before a notary, where they say that the process has been altruistic, and the surrogate is not pay anything.
Given that the surrogate will inevitably appear on the birth certificate, she must relinquish the child so that later in the country of destination the parents can initiate the process of filiation or adoption by the second spouse, depending on the country, but no Czech notary accepts to draw up this document, given that you cannot relinquish a baby with a simple notarized document.
The agencies also require a document from the parents, stating that it is an altruistic gestation (falsification of a public document before a notary is a criminal offence), which is obviously untrue, and can lead to the offence of false documentation.
For all these reasons, these types of programs are not recommended and if you decide to do it in this country, you must be aware and assume the possible risks that we warn you about in this website.