Veronica has been pregnant five times. On two occasions she gave birth to three babies who are not her biological children. In 2018 she gave birth to Chinese twins, and three years later, to an American girl.
Nathaly also gave birth to a baby who is not hers in her third pregnancy and the youngest now lives with his parents in Barcelona, Spain.
Both women experienced surrogacy processes with which foreign families, in this case homosexual parents, fulfilled the dream of being parents and they received financial compensation for renting their womb.
This practice is only regulated in two entities: Tabasco and Sinaloa. In the other 30 states of the country it is not prohibited, but there is no regulation that involves those who pay for the service or for those who offer it, and much less that protects the women who carry the pregnancy, which has made Mexico a very accessible alternative and makes it easier for individuals, especially foreigners, to set up agencies that are not legally constituted, but carry out processes.
If something goes wrong for the surrogates or intended parents, there is no one against whom legal action can be taken.
“They come, see the market, set up a coworking space and leave; the owners are in their countries. Technically, these agencies are not incorporated in the Mexican State, therefore, they are not susceptible to having tax responsibilities. This has allowed an endless number of French, American, Canadian and Chinese agencies to arrive and are already on their way,” explains Ana María Gómez Moreno, legal director of Mexico Surrogacy Law, a comprehensive agency that offers the necessary services for surrogacy.
The way of operating, she explains, is to separately hire human reproduction laboratories, doctors, nurses, external lawyers, which could make those who pay for the service susceptible to being defrauded.
“Everything is through a contract for the provision of services, therefore, they do not generate an employment relationship or rights or obligations of the employer with the staff. When there is a problem, they [the agency] disappear. There is no physical person who is responsible here in Mexico,” she adds.
The number of couples who seek to become parents through this practice and turn to the country as a surrogacy destination is increasing, as well as the number of women who decide to rent their womb, who can be vulnerable due to the lack of regulation.
“The woman who gets involved in this program does so for financial compensation, obviously, but also for decent treatment throughout the pregnancy,” says Gómez Moreno.
In a fatalistic scenario such as the death of a surrogate mother: “Who is responsible? And the woman’s children? [It is important] that these parameters are met, which we do not have set out in any law or regulation,” she says.
Nathaly carried out her process in an agency with foreign owners, where her experience was not entirely good, so she decided to put it aside and have direct contact with the doctors and intended parents.
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The lack of transportation to get to her medical appointments, buying medicines on her own with a late refund, and poor treatment from her coordinator, who should have been attentive to her health and needs, were situations she faced.
“The agency was an intermediary between the foreign parents and me, they managed everything with people here, but they were not established in Mexico. The agency sells you security, but sometimes you are more insecure with them.
“I know the story of a surrogate mother who relieved herself in the bathroom because the coordinator did not answer her messages. That coordinator leaves that agency and over time you see her in another one,” she says.
Verónica, who now works as a coordinator at Mexico Surrogacy Law, confesses that in her first process she did with an agency she felt distrust and thinks that if it were regulated there would be guarantees for the surrogate mothers and that the clauses in the contracts would be fulfilled, in addition to decent treatment and compensation.
“It’s not fear, it’s distrust of saying: ‘Will they pay me or not?’ There are foreign agencies that only come to make money and they don’t care about the quality of the surrogate mother, they deceive them. Many give amounts that make you say ‘wow!’ There are surrogate mothers who take up to a year [to pay] and they don’t transfer the money to them,” she says.
Social networks have become an effective tool to recruit women between 25 and 35 years old, who seek to participate in this type of process; an essential requirement is to have at least one child, in addition to being free of sexually transmitted diseases and enjoying good health in general.
The woman must pass a series of psychological tests that determine whether the candidate has a mental health status adequate to understand the process, her rights and commitments.
During the nine months, the surrogate mother continues her daily life. She experiences the pregnancy as if it were her own, with the difference that the medical expenses are the responsibility of the intended parents.
Upon leaving the hospital, the child is handed over to the parents, as stipulated in the contracts, to begin the legal process in which it is required to obtain, through lawyers, a final judgment ordering the registration of the birth of the infant conceived and gestated using assisted reproduction techniques of surrogate gestation in Mexico.
Why Mexico?
From a medical perspective, Mexico is at a time when it has very favorable factors for the surrogacy process, says Dr. Gerardo de Jesús Reyes, a gynecologist specializing in reproduction, including costs, the ease of finding women who want to participate, and good quality medical services that offer security and success in the process.
“From 2022 to 2024 it has increased 100%; if we saw 12 cases a year, now there are 24. I think the costs are equal to 1 to 5 with what they cost in other parts of the world, that makes it attractive,” he details.
According to estimates by lawyer Ana María Gómez Moreno, the waiting time in Mexico City for a couple to be assigned a surrogate is three to six months, while in Canada, where there is regulation, it is approximately two and a half years.
How is the regulation going in the country?
Only two states in the country, Tabasco and Sinaloa, have regulations on surrogacy in their Civil Code, but it is limited to Mexicans, while Coahuila, San Luis Potosí and Querétaro include articles in which they explicitly disavow any surrogacy agreement.
To carry out the legal process of this practice, the legal director of Mexico Surrogacy Law explains that there are jurisprudences of the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation (SCJN) that give them the guidelines: “We use supplementary laws such as the National Civil Code, where there are parts that do speak of human reproduction. In this case, there is no specific contract called a surrogacy contract, but we use the supplementary Civil Code of unnamed contracts.”
Despite this, she considers it important that the regulation implies rights and obligations for the surrogate mother, as well as legal certainty regarding the money of the intended parents, in addition to rules for the operation of agencies that offer the service.
“Surrogacy is mutual aid”
After being surrogate mothers, Verónica and Nathaly decided to work in the field, and now they are in charge of attending to the needs of women who are going through the process and have plans to rent their wombs again.
“This surrogacy thing is a taboo, many people think that you are going to give birth to your baby and that is not the case. It is mutual aid. It means helping a family to fulfill a dream, these babies are the most desired that there can be,” says Verónica.
“When the baby was born, I saw the reaction of the parents; the entire family from Spain arrived at the hospital, everyone was crying and hugging the baby with love. It is a box of dreams because the parents help you, but when you see that magic between families it is something wonderful,” remembers Nathaly.
Source: eluniversal
