Surrogacy in Russia: Limits of contractual regulation
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.21638/spbu25.2021.404Abstract
The theoretical scrutiny over surrogacy in many areas of the social sciences, including law, results from the intensive development of this new reproductive technology over recent decades. Given advantages it undoubtedly provides, but also dangers it probably entails, the world has been divided into principled supporters and opponents, as well as those who prefer to wait and see. Russian jurisdiction is among the most liberal in this respect, being generally favorable towards surrogacy and providing a minimum amount of legislative restrictions. The key provision, which creates a legal framework for regulating respective relationships in Russia today, is enshrined in paragraph 9 of Art. 55 of the Federal Law of November 21, 2011, no. 323-FZ “On the Basics of Protecting the Health of Citizens in the Russian Federation”. This provision, however, seems rather lapidary, general, and descriptive. Overlooking medical and social dimensions involved, the essence of the relationship arising in connection with surrogacy can be described as follows: future parents attract a surrogate mother to gestate and produce an offspring for them. The present paper deals with legal mechanisms underlying these relations, the potential role of civil law, and, in particular, of contractual regulation in Russia. The authors employ a dynamic approach towards the whole combination of relationships between the interested parties, dividing into several stages the entire process from the moment of reaching an agreement between a surrogate mother and potential parents, until the acquisition of parental rights in respect of a child. On the basis of a critical analysis of existing legislative provisions, as well as Russian courts’ jurisprudence, the authors question the validity of the well-established stance to treat these complex relations as matters of civil law.
Keywords:
surrogacy contract, assisted reproduction, bioethics, artificial reproduction, biological parent
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