Surrogacy by Country

Surrogacy in Switzerland is strictly prohibited by law. On January 1, 2001, Switzerland adopted the Law on Assisted Reproductive Technologies, which is one of the toughest in the world.

Due to legislation, surrogate motherhood is currently illegal in Singapore. The MOH has released a directive that prohibits surrogacy services, and any AR centre found to be doing so can have its license suspended or revoked.

In 2016, surrogacy was legalized in Portugal. Discussions on the adoption of this law lasted more than 3 years. The first version of the law was adopted May 13, 2016, but the president vetoed it.

Nowadays there is a tendency against surrogacy. For example, it’s not legal in Ireland. The Government of the country made attempts to work out special legislative base regulating surrogacy in Ireland but they were not completely successful.

For a long period of time hundreds of infertile couples found their surrogacy happiness in Thailand. But several world-scandal surrogacy journeys made the government of the country review the legal aspects of surrogacy in Thailand which has resulted in ban of the commercial surrogacy for foreigners.

Each year surrogate motherhood becomes more and more popular kind of infertility treatment but on a proper level surrogacy process is debugged only in few countries e.g. Ukraine, the USA, Georgia, Israel etc.

Italian legislation towards the usage of ART (Assisted Reproductive Technologies) is one of the most conservative among the European countries. According to the Law №40 from 19.02.2004 “About the Norms of Assisted Reproductive Technologies”, not just surrogacy in Italy is completely prohibited but other kinds of reproductive technologies (egg and sperm donation, embryo investigation and freezing) are strictly limited. 

Surrogacy in Lithuania is actual but, at the same time, quite a controversial question which is  far from the constructive solution. Nowadays the main problem is the uncertain attitude of the government towards this point as surrogacy in Lithuania isn’t regulated like a method of ART.

Surrogacy in the USA has been highly-developed and wide-spread process since 1991 when Congress allowed the usage of such kind of infertility treatment. But despite its popularity, surrogacy in the USA is officially permitted only in 8 among 50 states. 4 states like Arizona, New York, Utah, Washington and federal district Columbia view surrogacy illegal. 

The key point of surrogacy in Australia is the absence of any legislation regulating the usage of reproductive technologies and surrogacy. However, lately, Australian government accepted the necessity of the creation of the corresponding laws to promote the development of the theoretical and practical aspects of ART (Assisted Reproductive Technologies) usage.