Inside the walls of Crete’s Chania hospital are newborns at the centre of the surrogacy scandal.
Stephen Page represents two Australian couples who have been left in limbo after Greek police raided the Mediterranean Fertility Institute and arrested its medical team.
“The kindest way I could describe it is a mess – it’s an absolute utter mess,” Page said.
It is accused of exploiting 169 women from countries including Ukraine, Romania and Georgia, forcing them to be surrogate mothers or egg donors and keeping them under surveillance.
The alleged trafficking syndicate is also accused of illegal adoptions and fake IVF treatments.
The saga has come as a shock to the hundreds of parents who have successfully used its services.
“What surprises me about this one is that this clinic has been going for 30 years, well regarded and IVF is pretty well regulated in Greece,” Page said.
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“This is a very distressing situation for all of those affected,” Australia’s ambassador to Greece, Alison Duncan, said.
“There’s around 100 Australian couples who are affected in some way, whether or not they’ve got pregnant surrogates or births there now or embryos trapped in storage there,” Growing Families global director Sam Everingham said.
It is possible some have been given newborns that aren’t genetically theirs.
Sarah Jefford has worked as a surrogate mother and is helping three prospective parents who have been impacted.
She is calling for Australia to loosen its surrogacy rules.
“The only way that we can make sure that surrogacy is safe is to do it on home soil, where we can make sure that the surrogate and the intended parents and the babies born are protected,” Jefford said.
