Georgia's Changing Surrogacy Landscape: Insight from Lawyer Nino Bogveradze

Legal expert Nino Bogveradze is a guiding light for numerous intending parents requiring assistance with surrogacy contracts and birth certificates. She unpacks the recent government announcement that has left the Georgian surrogacy community on shaky ground. What could this unexpected governmental pivot mean for intending parents already engaged in IVF and surrogacy services in Georgia?

Allow Nino to guide you through the existing legal landscape, anticipated changes and their potential impact on surrogacy and IVF in Georgia. Amidst uncertainty and unanswered questions, Nino shares her insights and potential scenarios for prospective parents. Stay abreast with our ongoing coverage of this issue and other family-building options by subscribing to the Growing Families newsletter and keeping a watchful eye on the website for future webinars. There's much to comprehend and decode with each unfolding development.

Nino Bogveradze from Kordzadze Law Office recently appeared in a Growing Families Webinar on Georgia . Her update has been included in this episode.

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Growing Families was established by Sam Everingham in 2014 (initially as Families Through Surrogacy) and has assisted over 3000 singles and couples to engage in cross-border donor and surrogacy arrangements.

As an International Advisory Board creator Growing Families specialises in education, guidance and support on surrogacy and donation globally. It provides legal, financial, psychological and practical professional industry advice as an independent third party in a complex area to providers. Growing Families helps singles, heterosexual and gay couples on their family building journeys.

Contact Growing Families today to find out more about its confidential one to one consultations, holistic concierge packages and global events with guest speakers and industry experts from around the world.

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:08

My Miracle Baby navigating surrogacy and donor IVF a limited podcast series Recorded and produced by growing families, sam Everingham and Kerry Duncan.

Speaker 2: 0:22

Welcome to our podcast on Georgia. This is our second one on Georgia. Our aim is to keep you informed about what's going on. We've got a great speaker today that Sam will introduce in a moment.

Speaker 3: 0:33

Welcome everybody. I'm Sam Everingham from Growing Families. We're lucky today to have an expert from our Georgia, a legal expert, nino Bob Bratset, who many new parents have used for assistance with their documentation for birth certificates and surrogacy contracts and so forth To talk to us a bit about the situation in Georgia. After the government's announcement of the clash of Georgia, it does seem to have been enough to take in the Georgia surrogacy community by surprise. Nino's going to talk to us a bit about that and what it means for getting parents.

Speaker 4: 1:07

Yes, sure. So hello everyone. Let me just briefly explain to you what was going on prior to this announcement from the government. It's been for several years that the Ministry of Health worked on the bill of medically assisted reproduction, and the requirement was that we, georgia, has entered into the association agreement with the European Union and would have took the obligation to implement several European directives into our legislation, and the main purpose of working on the bill of medically assisted reproduction was to fulfill the obligation that the Georgian government took under the association agreement with the European Union.

Speaker 4: 1:57

However, these directives do not refer specifically to surrogacy and these directives did not require for prohibition of surrogacy or the access to any means of artificial conception based on nationality. And even, like many idea clinics and the specialists were involved, actively involved in the working process together with the Ministry of Health of Georgia And, as a result, we had the bill prepared for medically assisted reproduction already in spring and we were waiting for this bill to be passed in the Georgian parliament this autumn and therefore this bill would have been effective only from 2025. Therefore, this new law would give the possibility and it would give the reasonable time for agencies for idea clinics and all the stakeholders involved in this process to just get to know all the requirements, new requirements that the law would have. Many of these requirements in terms of surrogacy report to kind of banning commercialization and restricting the payments to surrogate mother and daughters. However, specifically, the bill mentioned the payments kind of altruism, however. However, the payments for inconveniences and the payments for lost income now would be allowed And therefore we were expecting this bill to be passed this year and it would have become effective only from 2025 and it was kind of the reasonable time for it.

Speaker 4: 3:47

And suddenly it's June 12th and we hear only the verbal announcements from the prime minister and from afterwards from the Ministry of Health of Georgia, declaring that they're going to ban surrogacy. And then not only surrogacy, also the services for in vitro fertilization for foreign intended parents, and this was totally shocking news for everyone for clinics, for lawyers, for everyone involved in this process. And we, at this moment still we do not know the real reason for this and we did not do not know how and when this decision was taken because we all I mean all the other clinics, all the specialists they were involved in actively involved in the process of creation of this bill.

Speaker 4: 4:45

And it was not, even this question was not in this issue was not even raised during the discussion on the bill that the surrogacy and IVF services would be banned for foreigners. This issue was not even discussed And suddenly we hear the verbal, these verbal announcements. What to expect? So this is a real question that all of you might have. So we continue to struggle in this respect for the government to reconsider its decision. However, there are little chances of this And it was quite hard to just get the amended bill where this restriction is included. I could officially get it only yesterday. So what I can read from the bill is that all the services of medically assisted reproduction would be banned, would be allowed only for Georgian citizens, and this is the only warning in itself prohibiting the access to medically assisted reproduction services, which means not only surrogacy and not only donation, but also individual transformation And other services for artificial conception would be allowed only for Georgian nationals. And the ban also said that the effective date of this law would be January 1st 2024. They're not only going to ban surrogacy for foreign intended parents, they're going to just completely and radically implement all these new regulations, which needs many other acts to be enacted by the government, and I simply do not know and cannot imagine how the government might just fulfill all these obligations prior to January 1st 2024. And this is a warning we have in the bill. And if this law becomes effective from January 1st 2024, it means that from the effective date The transfers, all these services cannot be accessible by foreign intended parents.

Speaker 4: 7:03

Look does not mention anything about the programs that have already been started prior to 2024. However, there is one indication in one part that it will not affect the embryo transfers that happened prior to January 1st 2024. There are many unclearities in this respect, however. For example, i have a question, i myself have a question, and this question should be raised during the discussion of the bill in the parliament Whether the programs under which the notarized contracts have already notarized contracts with surrogate mothers, how would this law be affected to those programs? For example, if intended parents have notarized contracts with surrogate mothers prior to January 1st 2024, whether it will be possible to do embryo transfers after that date.

Speaker 4: 8:10

If you ask me at this point because I cannot give you the specific answer, because this bill which I had at this moment does not provide any answer to that, and this needs this situation and this question needs the clarity. However, at this moment, what I think about? cannot we think about? is that? Probably not, because in one part there is kind of indication that the embryo transfer should happen prior to January 1st 2024. However, i'm not definite in this answer and there are still some clarities and there are not definitive answers to those questions which probably will need more time to get the answers about these questions.

Speaker 4: 8:58

However, i might say a few words about the process, because it's not. This is just what is going on right now in Georgia. Those are just kind of verbal announcements. The parliament hasn't even started to work on this bill yet and therefore there will be many discussions And I get clinics they really are actively involved in this process to provide their arguments against banning especially against banning surrogacy for poor young parents. And at least a purpose should be is just to prolong the time and for this bill to be effective not just from January 1st 2024, but maybe just to prolong this time and give it to the parents who have already started their programs with the agencies, when with the clinics, for them to give the possibility to end this program.

Speaker 4: 9:55

So this is the first purpose of negotiations with the government officials and the parliament. Well, the best solution, of course, would be just to convince the government to rethink this decision to ban surrogacy for poor young parents. I, as a lawyer, cannot hear any grounded arguments. Those arguments just are, i mean, just announcement. They do not have any grounds. And if you ask me why Georgia government has decided to ban surrogacy for poor young parents, i cannot give you any reasonable answer to that, because those explanations for me they are not just arguments.

Speaker 4: 10:49

So this is just a brief explanation what is going on at this moment in Georgia.

Speaker 3: 10:55

Thanks, nina, that's great.

Speaker 2: 10:57

Sam, it sounds like there's a lot more questions than answers available at the moment. I imagine people are feeling pretty frustrated. How can they stay informed and up to date with any changes or information that comes to light over the next few months?

Speaker 3: 11:13

The best thing for people to do is to subscribe to the growing families at Newsnetter because we will be making known webinars we'll be putting on in the coming months about developments in that area, about other options for people, or keep a track of our website. On our website we've always got an event listing about webinars coming up where you can keep informed about the changes and what that means for you and your family. Building plans.

Speaker 2: 11:37

Okay, fantastic, that's great. Thank you, sam. I'm sure that's going to really help a lot of people. So there is support out there for anyone who's feeling anxious, and, of course, they can contact you directly, sam growing families, if they want to do an individual consult, but otherwise I've got the webinars.

Speaker 3: 11:51

That's right, and we do have kind of serious support for people who are wanting support in either moving the embryos to another country or get what other options are available to them that are safe and reliable. So people shouldn't hesitate in reaching out for that kind of professional advice.

Speaker 2: 12:07

Okay, fantastic. Thanks so much, Sam Great.

Speaker 1: 12:14

We hope you enjoyed this episode. For further information, please head to the Growing Families website.