Most couples deciding it’s time to start a family take the conventional route. That means a woman allowing herself to become pregnant; the couple sets aside the finances required to care for a child in the future, and, nine months later, a baby is born, and a new family starts their life together. Unfortunately, not every couple has this option.
For some couples, medical obstacles pose a serious challenge. If a woman has a heart condition, for example, she is medically capable of still becoming pregnant, but doing so could endanger both her life and that of the baby during pregnancy. Other women have had medical procedures done, such as hysterectomies that remove the uterus, to win the battle against other illnesses like cancer. Unfortunately, these procedures mean they can no longer become pregnant.
Surrogacy is one solution to this, where another woman agrees to become pregnant on behalf of a couple wishing to start a family. Once she’s carried the unborn child to term, the newborn is united with the hopeful family after the delivery, and now they start their new life together. However, this requires working with surrogacy agencies abroad in some cases, which means new opportunities for businesses to reach out and work together.
Why Go To A Surrogacy Agency Abroad?
Surrogacy as a technique for allowing hopeful couples to start families has become a popular alternative worldwide. Because so many nations have a well-developed medical infrastructure, it is technically possible for most countries to safely and successfully carry out a surrogate pregnancy since it is in most respects identical to a traditional pregnancy.
However, despite surrogacy being technically available in many countries, some hopeful families still choose to go abroad and work with a surrogacy agency outside of their country of residence. This may appear, on the surface, to add unneeded levels of time and complication, but there can be some compelling reasons to work with a surrogacy agency abroad, including:
Shifting Legalities
One of the most common reasons to make this decision is because the laws regarding surrogacy vary from one nation to the next. In the case of larger countries, such as the United States or Canada, the laws may differ from one state or province to the next. The differences in law can have an adverse effect on the desires of a hopeful family. In the most extreme cases, such as for the countries of France and Germany, surrogacy is completely banned, meaning hopeful families are not legally permitted to undertake a surrogate pregnancy at all.
In other cases, only “altruistic surrogacies” are permitted, meaning that surrogate mothers agree to take on this role on a strictly “voluntary” basis. They only receive financial support for living and medical expenses, drastically reducing the available pool of suitable candidates. Many women find this level of commitment with no tangible return insufficient.
Compensated surrogacy, however, does provide significant financial recognition to the surrogate mother for her role in the surrogacy process. Because of this, in areas where compensated surrogacy is legal, the pool of available candidates is significantly larger, giving hopeful parents many more choices and opportunities. As a result, sometimes hopeful parents will opt for an international compensated surrogacy to have more choice.
Currency Differences
There is a significant financial investment involved in surrogacy. In some cases, it’s not just the surrogate mother that needs to be funded, but access to specialized medical facilities, such as labs for in vitro fertilization. While countries like the United States do sports state of the art access to such facilities, and some states allow for compensated surrogacies, this also means financing all of this in American dollars.
Other nations have access to an equivalent level of amenities regarding surrogate choice and modern medical facilities and labs. However, the crucial difference is that currency differences mean a significantly lower expense than getting the equivalent in $USD. For hopeful families that want to maximize their expenditure without sacrificing quality, or medical safety, going abroad to places where the American dollar goes a long way makes more financial sense.
Possibilities For Partnerships
As a result of more hopeful families working with surrogacy agencies abroad, this opens up new opportunities for different types of client and business growth. Legal practices, for example, would benefit from a partnership and referral system as some hopeful families will need consultations about matters of international law and citizenship when it comes to safely returning to an intended country of residence with a newborn not born in that country.
Other services, such as counseling for the hopeful family as well as for the surrogate mother, are also important. There may also be logistical considerations, such as transporting cryogenically stored donor eggs or sperm to ensure they are still in a viable state for implantation. These and many other services mean fruitful relationships between some types of business and surrogacy agencies abroad.