https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-08-20/ukraines-commercial-surrogacy-industry-leaves-disaster/11417388Damaged babies and broken hearts: Ukraine's commercial surrogacy industry leaves a trail of disasters
Foreign Correspondent / Europe correspondent Samantha Hawley
Posted 19 August 2019, updated 21 August 2019
This is the moment. I arrive at the Sonechko Children's Home, a collection of rundown double-story brick buildings in a city southeast of Kiev, the Ukrainian capital. I'm here to meet a little girl I've been searching for over the past six months. She's been abandoned by the very people who paid for her to be born to her American parents. Now she's an orphan and has disabilities that require medical attention. Marina Boyko, the flame-haired nurse who's cared for the little girl since she was a baby, is taking us to meet her. The door to the child's room opens and the emotion hits hard.
The search
My investigation began last year. "Have any foreigners left a baby behind?" I asked.
It was a simple question and an obvious one. "An American couple left one last year," came the answer.
I hung up the phone to my source in Kiev and so began months of work to find a baby born via a surrogate in Ukraine and then abandoned by the American parents. Sadly, I was familiar with this kind of story. Back in 2014, I found Gammy, a baby boy whose birth was "commissioned" by an Australian couple. They left him behind in Thailand to be cared for by his surrogate mother. The couple only brought Gammy's twin sister home. Then I searched for a baby boy in India on assignment for Foreign Correspondent in 2015. Again, the child was left behind by his Australian parents after they decided they'd only take his twin sister home. I never found him. These were just some of the horror stories which prompted Thailand and India to ban commercial surrogacy for foreigners. As a result, Ukraine is quickly becoming the "hot" new surrogacy destination. But while the country has changed, the story remains the same. I'm now hearing there's a child who's been abandoned in Ukraine. I know that finding her won't be easy. After countless phone calls, finally, there's a breakthrough. With the help of local Ukrainian journalists, we find out the child we're looking for is alive and being cared for in a town called Zaporizhzhya large industrial centre south-east of the capital, Kiev. It's a leap of faith, but we book flights from London and make the journey. We don't know what we'll see or what we'll be able to film, but sometimes being on the ground is the only way. We're directed to the Sonechko Children's Home on the edge of the city, where some 200 children live. When we arrive, it's eerily quiet. There's no children's chatter or laughter, not a cry, not a squeal. It's like they've been silenced for our benefit. The staff knows we are coming but they are wary. We know this first visit will be about building trust. They invite us in and we interview them about a child they speak of with deep and genuine affection, but we are told we cannot see her as she is sick and quarantined in a nearby hospital. At the end of a tense and very long day, we're granted a meeting with Natalia Syvoraksha, chief of the Children's Department for Zaporizhzhya City Council. She tells me the little girl's name is Bridget, and she has spent most of her life in the hospital where she was taken after her birth in February 2016. She was born prematurely at 25 weeks and weighed just over 800 grams. It was only in March this year she was moved to the Sonechko Children's Home. Bridget is now three years old and has a range of disabilities. Frustratingly, we get just 20 minutes with Ms. Syvoraksha, as she has another meeting to attend, but she promises to help us meet Bridget. It's in her hands now. We fly back to Kiev. Then, after a few anxious days, we receive a call. The staff at the Sonechko Children's Home and state officials have talked and we've been granted permission to see Bridget.
Meeting Bridget
We fly back to Zaporizhzhya, not really knowing what to expect. We meet Marina Boyko, the paediatric nurse who has cared for Bridget since she was a baby. She takes us into the home to meet Bridget. When Marina opens the door, Bridget reaches out for her. The fair-haired little girl is bright and engaging. There's a loving bond between the pair that can be felt by everyone watching on.
"Personally, for me, she is the best, most beautiful, most joyous, most intelligent child that can ever exist," Marina Boyko says.
While Bridget's development has been slow because of her premature birth, she can say a few words and feed herself with assistance. She plays with Marina, who throws the little girl into the air and kisses her affectionately. "She really understands when people speak to her, she's good at stuff," Ms. Boyko said of "Brizzy", as she affectionately calls her.
It's hoped that with the right help, Bridget might one day walk. The consulting doctor won't give us a diagnosis, as her needs are still being assessed. However, she's certain Bridget has potential and her life would be better if she was placed with a loving family. Around the room, there are tears for this little girl whose future could be so much more.
Stateless
The child's full name is Bridget Irmgard Pagan-Etnyre. She was carried by a Ukrainian surrogate mother from the war-torn area of Donetsk. Her twin died at birth. Matthew Scott Etnyre, 39, and Irmgard Pagan, 61, are the Americans listed as Bridget's parents on documents seen by Foreign Correspondent. "You can't judge a child as soon as it's born 'We don't like this child, we wanted you to have a Hollywood smile upon birth'", Ms. Boyko says of the Americans' decision to leave Bridget in Ukraine.
"I would say to them that they have an amazing daughter."
Marina has tried to contact the Americans on social media on several occasions to update them on Bridget's progress, but she has received no response. According to Natalia Syvoraksha, and in child welfare documents seen by Foreign Correspondent, the Americans sent a legal letter asking that Bridget's life support be switched off when she was five months old and gravely ill. "...on May 25th, 2016, we learned that Etneire (sic) Pagan Irmgard Bridget is mentally and physically ill, she is in a vegetative state and has no chances of becoming a normal person. Doctors advise and recommend that we stop any treatments so that she could find peace..."
"We will not take her to America. This baby is incurable."
But Bridget survived and after another 18 months, when she was almost two years old, the Americans sent a second letter giving their consent for her adoption. According to Natalie Syvoraksha, the document, which was signed in the presence of the Consul General of the US Embassy, was not recognised under Ukrainian law. This meant Bridget was essentially stateless as she wasn't considered a Ukrainian citizen and no application had been made for her to become an American citizen. A US State Department spokeswoman would not comment on the case, but in a statement said the US Consular officers provide notarial services on request and refusal can only be done under limited circumstances. We did contact Mr. Etnyre in California, where he lives, to discuss the case of his daughter Bridget. He didn't deny any of the allegations I put to him, but he refused to respond further or to be interviewed for the program.
The baby factory
Foreign Correspondent requested an interview with the head of Biotexcom, a well-known surrogacy agency in Ukraine. It's the company the Americans used to "commission" the commercial surrogacy arrangement which led to Bridget's birth. To our surprise, Biotexcom's owner, Albert Tochilovsky, agrees to meet us at the company headquarters in central Kiev. In May last year, Mr. Tochilovsky was briefly placed under house arrest amidst allegations of child-trafficking, document forgery, and tax avoidance, but to date, no proceedings have been brought. During our interview, he insists he's never had a client called Etnyre, and that he bears no responsibility for what's happened with Bridget. He claims a rival agency is pretending to be Biotexcom and blaming his company. We also questioned him about another case where a British couple used the services of Biotexcom and their child suffered brain damage at birth. Tochilovsky confirms there have been some children born with brain damage but denies it's as a result of improper medical treatment arranged by his agency for his surrogate mothers. The couple's baby was sent to a Ukrainian public hospital for tests and treatment and they were appalled at the conditions they encountered there.
'An immoral business'
Commercial surrogacy is legal in Ukraine for heterosexual couples who can prove there is a genuine medical reason for their inability to have a child. Beyond that, Ukraine's tumultuous and shifting political landscape, and widely acknowledged corruption at all levels of government, means there is little oversight over an industry which has seen unprecedented growth in recent years. One of the few officials keeping a watchful eye on how the baby business is developing is the Children's Ombudsman, Nikolai Kuleba, who was directly appointed by Ukraine's President. Mr. Kuleba is aware of Bridget's situation and has expressed concern about additional information that's come to light: it's believed Bridget's American parents engaged in a second surrogacy arrangement in Ukraine, which resulted in the birth of another set of twins. "Such situations won't be unique because it's understandable that the couple pays money, hoping to obtain a healthy child, but this sometimes doesn't happen," Mr. Kuleba said. "No-one stopped them from checking whether the child was alive; they could have visited her and continued to assume responsibility for her."
Foreign Correspondent has not been able to independently verify this information, but Matthew Etnyre did not deny it when we spoke to him. Disturbingly, Mr. Kuleba reveals that Bridget's is not an isolated case. He says his office is aware of a further 10 cases where babies born via commercial surrogacy in Ukraine have been abandoned by their foreign parents. "These are the ones that we are aware of, but I assume there are instances that we don't know about," he said.
Mr. Kuleba also tells us of cases where babies have no DNA link to foreign parents, and where children are smuggled out of Ukraine.
"This is an immoral business, it does harm."
Bridget's future
In the next few weeks, it's been confirmed that Bridget will be legally recognised as a Ukrainian citizen and she is now able to be adopted. Until that happens, she will remain at the Sonechko Children's Home, which offers some rehabilitation. In Ukraine, it's regarded as an advanced facility with much better staff-child ratios than other centres. If a family cannot be found for her, at the age of 7 Bridget will be moved to another institution where there will be no therapy on offer. Such a move will also take her away from her beloved Marina Boyko, making it very difficult for her one and only visitor to come and see her. When she turns 18, she'll be sent to an aged care home. Ms. Boyko wants one thing for the little girl: "To find a family that will love her, that is the most important thing".
Editor's note December 10, 2019: This article was amended to clarify that the Australian couple only brought Baby Gammy’s sister home from Thailand, while Gammy was left to be cared for by his surrogate mother.
Posted 19 AugAugust 2019, updated 21 AugAugust 2019
