Age between 18 and 40 years, at least one own child and Czech citizenship. Such and other conditions would have to be fulfilled in the future by a woman who would allow herself to bear the child of a couple who are unable to conceive. Surrogacy would then have to be approved by the court even before fertilization. This is what the legalization of so-called surrogate marriage could look like. The proposal is now in the hands of the Ministry of Justice.
By the end of May, this should present the substantive intent of the law, which will legally treat surrogate motherhood. The possibility of having a child taken away by a surrogate mother is literally in the gray zone in the Czech Republic at the moment, in which all those involved are on the verge of criminal acts.
Trafficking in children
At the same time, however, the absence of legislation enabled an organized group from Ukraine (where surrogacy is illegal) to traffic in children, which was discovered two years ago by the Czech police. They had to postpone the case precisely because of the Czech legal vacuum, which the group abused.
“All the stories of child trafficking that we also heard during the presentation are terrifying. But that is precisely why treating the issue is important. Although I know that a compromise will not be found easily, it is a very sensitive topic,” says MP and member of the Standing Committee for the Family Ondřej Matěj Havel (TOP 09).
The split between politicians on this topic is not, like most others, partisan, but rather ideological and emotional. For example, a more conservative group of legislators from the ANO movement came up with a proposal to completely ban surrogate motherhood under the threat of prison a few months ago.
A tough proposal from ANO MPs
Two MPs from the ANO movement came up with a strict proposal that would completely ban surrogacy under the threat of prison. According to the politicians, it is a measure that will help in the fight against child trafficking.
However, MPs across the political spectrum agree that the issue must be legally regulated somehow. What direction it will take will be decided by their further debates. They now have at least the basics on paper from the ministry.
They must include a clear specification of who could be a surrogate mother. She could only be of a certain age, which would exclude, for example, the possibility that a woman, who is unable to bear a child, would have the offspring carried away by her mother, for example. The proposal also indicates how gratuity would be dealt with, as well as other legal consequences. Read their summary in the box:
Basic parameters
The Ministry of Justice has prepared the basic parameters for the legalization of surrogate marriage. It is only a proposal, most of it will still be discussed and further refined.
- Surrogate Mother Eligibility: age 18 to 40 years, adequate state of health, birth of at least one living child in the past and at least one living child of one’s own, citizenship of the Czech Republic or residence in the Czech Republic (necessary to ensure compliance with EU law).
- Eligibility of Intended Parents: parents must be married or unmarried heterosexual couple, mother up to 49 years old, father with no age limit, medical indications of the intended mother (women without a uterus or with damage to the uterus, women with a disease for which pregnancy is contraindicated, women with repeated failure of artificial insemination or women with repeated pregnancy losses), citizenship of the Czech Republic or residence in the Czech Republic of at least one of the intended parents.
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Last week, Deputy Minister Karel Dvořák (STAN) presented a summary of the most important points reached by the ministerial working group to the members of the Standing Commission for the Family. “These are only basic parameters, many related issues will have to be discussed during the preparation of the legal text,” pointed out Dvořák.
A heated debate took place on the subject at the Standing Committee, which, according to the MPs interviewed by Seznam Zprávy, was at times very emotional. The MPs therefore interrupted it after a rather long discussion and will return to it during April, after the opponents and skeptics of this solution in particular have studied the documents they requested from the ministry.
Three stories of surrogacy
Seznam News reported the stories of three women who want a child, but cannot give birth due to health complications.
According to the chairwoman of the standing committee, MP Marie Jílková (KDU-ČSL), Wednesday’s meeting was a kind of first dig. “For some colleagues, the topic was new and therefore very emotional, but for me it is a path in the right direction. It is very strictly set, which I think was a request from all parties involved,” said Jílková, according to whom there will still be a debate about which indicator groups should fall into the proposal. “And there will certainly be a debate about the level of criminalization and what will be affected under criminal law,” she added.
What if a child is born with a disability?
“For me it’s a compromise, I could imagine it even more relaxed. It is necessary to set legal frameworks there to prevent child trafficking, but certainly not ban it. This would make people resort to extreme illegal solutions,” thinks STAN MP Pavla Pivoňka Vaňková, who represents more liberal-minded legislators in the commission.
On the opposite side of the spectrum, there is a section of ANO and the People’s Party. ANO member of parliament and member of the social committee Aleš Juchelka is very critical of surrogate marriage, who is particularly concerned about how children born with disabilities will be treated.
Child trafficking cases that pushed MPs
List Two years ago, the News described a case of child trafficking, which was committed in the Czech Republic by an organized group from Ukraine, where surrogacy is a crime. However, due to the legal vacuum regarding surrogacy in the Czech Republic, the local police postponed the case. But the case motivated politicians to start solving this deficiency.
“No one was able to answer me what would happen to such a child. I was not told if there will be any sanctions, for example, in the event that a child is born with Down syndrome and the parents who ordered it simply run away and don’t pick it up,” indicated a specific problem, Juchelka, who does not want to comment further on the topic time to study the materials he requested from the Ministry. “And he hasn’t received them yet,” he points out.
The legal treatment of this issue will most likely be one of the sticking points of the planned legislation, because parents who abandon their children, for example by placing them in a baby box, are also not penalized in any way. In the Czech legal order, there is also an institute of so-called clandestine birth, where women can give birth anonymously in a maternity hospital and give up the child.
“I watched how they treated this abroad. I suspect that in Greece, parents who do not take over a child, even if the child is disabled, are criminally responsible. I’m not saying we’re going to go down that road, but all of these things should be considered. The ministry received feedback from the standing commission that all things still need to be worked out, so I can imagine that they will come up with some proposal within the framework of the substantive law on how to solve this particular area,” added Marie Jílková.
Tags: Court approval age limit state preparing conditions surrogate mothers
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