CHILDREN OF WAR: PROBLEMS OF SURROGATE MOTHERHOOD DURING MILITARY AGGRESSION OF THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION AGAINST UKRAINE

Abstract

The article is devoted to the study of the problems of commercial surrogacy as a component of assisted reproductive technologies in Ukraine. Its regulation by the current national legislation of Ukraine is analyzed in detail, as well as the provisions of draft laws that are under consideration in the profile committee of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine concerning certain aspects of surrogacy. During the martial law, even more than during the quarantine restrictions, all the pitfalls of the provision of surrogacy services by Ukrainian women to foreigners were revealed. As a result, a number of problems have arisen, including the fulfillment of obligations under the surrogacy agreement, which have proved extremely difficult and sometimes impossible to resolve in these circumstances. The lack of proper legal regulation of surrogacy creates conditions for abuse, which increases the likelihood of uncontrolled movement of newborns, reproductive cells, reproductive tissues and human embryos outside Ukraine, in particular to remove embryonic stem cells and etc. Such actions may, under certain conditions, qualify as a form of trafficking. In the context of the forced mass migration of Ukrainian women and children, and even more so their forced deportation, the issue of protection and restoration of reproductive health is especially important. Currently, in order to protect the rights and best interests of children, as well as Ukrainian surrogate mothers, there is a need to review the entire policy of surrogacy at the state level. Given the significant demographic losses brought to Ukraine first by the pandemic and now by the war, the main conceptual basis of the bill on the settlement of surrogacy should be the requirement of Art. 16 of the Constitution of Ukraine in the part «preservation of the gene pool of the Ukrainian people”. And it is this duty of the state that should be the main emphasis in the development of legislative regulation in this area. The main directions of improvement and development of normative-legal acts in the field of auxiliary reproductive technologies concerning surrogacy are determined. It is concluded that special legal regulation of surrogacy at the legislative level is necessary.