Surrogacy Journey (Single Dad) - International vs. Domestic Surrogacy Agency
Posted 07-15-2021 at 08:26 AM by prospectheightsresident
Updated 09-19-2021 at 08:05 PM by prospectheightsresident
Updated 09-19-2021 at 08:05 PM by prospectheightsresident
When deciding on a surrogacy agency, first and foremost for me was reputation and quality of care, to include information on how an agency screened potential surrogates and the care that the agency took with surrogates and intended parents. Any agency with a poor reputation in those areas (and I spent considerable periods of time researching each agency I considered) was immediately crossed off of my list.
After these things, the next biggest issue was cost. With surrogacy agency journeys costing upward of $160k many times in the US/Canada, I wanted to find an agency that was affordable.
When looking at the most affordable options, many of them were located overseas, to include in Mexico, Eastern Europe, and Africa. These agencies offered surrogacy journeys at a fraction of the cost in the US/Canada.
There were several reasons why I decided against cheaper, overseas options, though, to include:
-Misleading costs: while the agency journey costs in many of the countries I looked at were very affordable (relatively speaking), one hidden cost was the fact that intended parents could not take their children home without a birth certificate. One agency in Mexico told me that I would likely be waiting 6 weeks in country before a birth certificate was provided. That's 6 weeks of hotel and meal expenses and, in some people's cases, 6 weeks of lost income. Still, even then, the cost was cheaper than US-based journeys, though the total price difference did narrow quite a bit.
Staying on this topic, some countries have relatively cheap accommodations, but they are not in the best parts of town generally speaking I've found. Thus, I'd be paying a premium to stay in an area that I felt safe, which is an important point for me being in any location that I do not know well.
-Discriminatory laws: many countries also have laws against unmarried, single, and/or non-citizen parents going through the surrogacy process, which excluded me from use of services in those countries. Some of these countries included the Ukraine and India. I can understand the rationale behind some of the laws, but they nonetheless made surrogacy in those countries a non-option for me.
-Uncertainty over travel: particularly during Covid-19 when we never know when we'll see countries close their borders to travel, I was hesitant to sign with an agency when there was no guarantee that I'd even be allowed to travel there to leave a semen deposit or to pick up my child in a timely manner post-birth. Also, being military, I knew that operations could get in the way and that a host of factors could lead my chain of command to deny my leave to a foreign country for the necessary appointments and post-birth visits I needed to do.
After these things, the next biggest issue was cost. With surrogacy agency journeys costing upward of $160k many times in the US/Canada, I wanted to find an agency that was affordable.
When looking at the most affordable options, many of them were located overseas, to include in Mexico, Eastern Europe, and Africa. These agencies offered surrogacy journeys at a fraction of the cost in the US/Canada.
There were several reasons why I decided against cheaper, overseas options, though, to include:
-Misleading costs: while the agency journey costs in many of the countries I looked at were very affordable (relatively speaking), one hidden cost was the fact that intended parents could not take their children home without a birth certificate. One agency in Mexico told me that I would likely be waiting 6 weeks in country before a birth certificate was provided. That's 6 weeks of hotel and meal expenses and, in some people's cases, 6 weeks of lost income. Still, even then, the cost was cheaper than US-based journeys, though the total price difference did narrow quite a bit.
Staying on this topic, some countries have relatively cheap accommodations, but they are not in the best parts of town generally speaking I've found. Thus, I'd be paying a premium to stay in an area that I felt safe, which is an important point for me being in any location that I do not know well.
-Discriminatory laws: many countries also have laws against unmarried, single, and/or non-citizen parents going through the surrogacy process, which excluded me from use of services in those countries. Some of these countries included the Ukraine and India. I can understand the rationale behind some of the laws, but they nonetheless made surrogacy in those countries a non-option for me.
-Uncertainty over travel: particularly during Covid-19 when we never know when we'll see countries close their borders to travel, I was hesitant to sign with an agency when there was no guarantee that I'd even be allowed to travel there to leave a semen deposit or to pick up my child in a timely manner post-birth. Also, being military, I knew that operations could get in the way and that a host of factors could lead my chain of command to deny my leave to a foreign country for the necessary appointments and post-birth visits I needed to do.
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