Lawyer Maria Yarmush told Izvestia on October 2, in which cases the appearance of children from single fathers can be considered a trade, and in which not.
On September 30, TASS, citing a source, reported that as part of the investigation into the trafficking of children, the investigators decided to detain and petition for the arrest of men who used surrogacy services. According to the source, the men could be charged with buying children. Completion of the investigation of the criminal case is planned by the end of the year.
In Russia, it is allowed to use the IVF procedure. At the same time, a single woman or a married couple can use the service, said Maria Yarmush.
However, the law does not state that a married couple must be officially married. They can just be cohabitants – in a civil marriage. And then both parents fit into the record of the birth of the child, the lawyer added.
If the surrogate mother who carried and gave birth to the child is not his biological mother, and the father who hired her and paid the money is the biological father of the child, this cannot be considered child trafficking, the lawyer believes.
“If a man is the biological father of a child, he cannot be charged with buying a child. This is not human trafficking. This is childbirth. If law enforcement agencies have doubts, they should check if the surrogate mother is the biological mother of the baby. If so, then she can be recruited for participating in the sale and purchase of children. And at the same time the medical structures, which contributed to the mother’s selling her child, ”Yarmush said.
If a single man is recorded by his father and brings up a child born to a surrogate mother, to whom he is not a biological father, then the investigating authorities have reason to find out on what basis this man is raising a child who is not someone else’s.
“I believe that law enforcement agencies need to look for corpus delicti in all dubious IVF procedures. But it is not at all necessary, if citizens ordered a child from a surrogate mother, then they bought this child, ”concluded Maria Yarmush.
Presidential press secretary Dmitry Peskov on October 2 said that the Kremlin hopes that the Investigative Committee of Russia will clarify the situation with men who have resorted to the services of surrogate mothers and are now suspected of buying children, since they could not be donors during IVF.
In turn, Oksana Pushkina, Deputy Head of the State Duma Committee on Family, Women and Children, sent a letter to the Prosecutor General’s Office asking to prevent the removal of children from men who used surrogacy services.
In January, the body of a baby was found in one of the apartments in Odintsovo near Moscow, which the mother gave to the firm Rosjurconsulting, which was engaged in surrogacy. There were three more newborns in the apartment.
Criminal cases were initiated under the articles “Causing death by negligence” and “Human trafficking”. As part of the investigation, eight people were detained, including doctors and lawyers, who were processing the surrogacy procedure.