Not every couple can start a family by having a pregnancy and celebrating the birth of a baby nine months later. Medical factors and other circumstances can sometimes make it inadvisable, or even impossible, to have a baby traditionally.
Fortunately, surrogacy, where another woman agrees to become pregnant on behalf of a couple, and that newborn is then introduced to the new parents to start life as a family. Surrogacy is an increasingly popular alternative, and one of the trends in this area is for couples to travel to another country, such as the Eastern European nation of Georgia. But why would you want to go here, and what would it cost? Here’s some of the information about the advantages of this country and essential information cost of surrogacy in Georgia.
No Single Price Point
Couples need to understand that how much a surrogacy in Georgia costs is dependent on the kind of surrogacy they would like to have. Most surrogacies in Georgia are of the compensated surrogacy type, which means the surrogate mother herself is getting substantial financial recognition for her part, as opposed to volunteering with no expectation of reward.
This creates a “ground floor” for certain minimum costs, but there are additional factors to add on that will affect what couples can expect to pay. However, as a baseline, couples should be prepared to consider these specific factors:
Surrogacy Agency
Unless couples are willing to speak, read, and write Georgian, one of the first costs they will incur is finding an agency or clinic to help them find a surrogate mother in Georgia. This is a critical first step, as an experienced, reliable agency or clinic will already have the infrastructure in place to find and screen suitable candidates for surrogacy.
For couples, this means that not only is the language barrier taken care of, but the search for candidates, liaising with them, arranging meetings, and finalizing the legal agreement are all taken care of under a single cost. If working with a reputable agency, the fees to the agency or clinic will range between $5000-$20000, depending on how many additional services are provided.
Surrogate Compensation
As stated earlier, surrogate mothers in Georgia are generally paid for their efforts, unlike other countries, such as Canada, that only allow women to volunteer for surrogacy with no expectation of financial reward. However, surrogacy in the country of Georgia is considerably lower than in other developed nations such as the United States.
As a result, surrogacy compensation in Georgia, while still in the tens of thousands, is lower than in many other countries. Couples can expect to pay between $10000 and $30000 in surrogacy compensation. However, some of these costs are also determined by whether other factors are “bundled in,” such as surrogacy agency fees, living expenses, medical expenses, and others.
Surrogacy Medical Procedures
Another cost that can become very significant is medical-related. It’s a given that the surrogate mother will be provided with living and medical expenses of some kind. However, depending on the type of surrogacy a couple wants, additional expenses quickly factor in.
For example, if a couple wants to have a child that is a “true” genetic ancestor of the hopeful parents, that is, 50% of the mother’s and 50% of the father’s DNA, as would be the case in traditional childbirth, this is still possible through the IVF technique. In vitro fertilization, as it is more formally known, takes donated egg and sperm samples and fertilizes them in a lab. Upon confirmation of fertilization, the egg is then implanted in the surrogate mother, at which point a conventional pregnancy runs its course.
The IVF procedure, on its own, may cost between $12000 and $15000 for a single attempt. In addition, there may be additional charges for specific services in tandem with the IVF procedure. For example, if couples, due to medical circumstances, can’t donate “fresh” sperm or eggs but have them stored cryogenically, specific logistics are required to safely transport those samples to the lab and still be viable for use, which is an added cost.
Additionally, if one or both partners in the relationship have any family medical history with a congenital disease, such as cystic fibrosis or sickle cell anemia, it is possible to avoid passing this onto the baby through the use of a procedure known as preimplantation genetic diagnosis, or PGD. PGD requires multiple fertilized eggs, and each of them is then screened for disorders. Any that are detected are not used for IVF, ensuring the baby is born with the best possible start, but of course, this comes at an additional cost.
Legal Services
Finally, couples traveling to Georgia from another country may also need to invest in legal assistance to ensure the newborn is eligible for citizenship upon return. Different countries have different legal requirements, so returning parents can’t necessarily count on the automatic conferral of citizenship for the baby upon return.
Legal services may cost between $5000 and $10000. However as has been said before, a lot of this can vary, and individual costs may be bundled into services provided by some agencies.