Surrogacy nightmare: Australian couples beg for help

Thirty-five Australian couples and five single women have been left in limbo and desperate for answers after a Greek surrogacy clinic was shut down.

Australian couples expecting babies through surrogacy in Crete are “begging” lawyers to help find their carriers, after the surrogacy clinic they were using controversially shut down.

The couples, who are “too ashamed” to talk for trusting the long running Mediterranean Fertility Institute (MFI), are getting little from Greek authorities and desperately seeking information.

The clinic’s founding member and seven staff were arrested in August, accused of forcing 169 women from countries including Ukraine, Romania and Georgia to be surrogate mothers or egg donors — and keeping them under surveillance.

They are also accused of illegal adoptions and fake IVF treatments.

Sam Everingham, founder of Growing Families, a not-for-profit that helps guide Australian families through the complicated surrogacy process abroad, said the situation was “heartbreaking”.

Sam Everingham from Growing Families says the situation is “heartbreaking”. Picture: Supplied

All up, 35 Australian couples and five single women are in limbo. Seven have ongoing pregnancies, and 40 have embryos and other genetic material stored at the clinic.

“It’s a shit show out there (in Crete), a lot of the couples are desperate to be put in touch with the surrogate or get back their embryos,” Mr Everingham said.

“They are not sure where the embryos are being kept, they are begging lawyers and authorities to help find them at more costs to the thousands they have already paid out. It’s heartbreaking to see.

“The couples are embarrassed they even trusted this clinic but when you’re desperate for a family you believe in hope and this clinic had been established for quite some years. None of them has received any communication from the clinic.

“The law has to change in Australia, for so many couples to go overseas to produce their own families shows the system doesn’t work,

“We’re hoping what happened in Crete is a wake up for the Australian government to act.”

Many couples have had to reply on Facebook and intermediaries in Crete for information.

“It’s really difficult to understand what was happening out there, no return calls or emails,” Mr Everingham said, noting the surrogacy industry in Greece is largely unregulated.

The house in Chania, Crete, where surrogate mothers from Georgia were held in prison-like conditions and prevented from leaving during the day. Picture: Jacquelin Magnay

There is also the race against the clock to find missing embryos, with the electricity used to refrigerate them switched off at MFI after the police raids.

Brisbane-based family and fertility law specialist Stephen Page has written to both the Australian embassy in Athens and Greek consul general in Sydney asking, “who is paying to ensure the electricity stays on /rent for the facility for the cryogenic tanks?”

“I have not heard about any support by the Greek government or any arrangements for compensation for the Australians affected,” he said.

At least two Australian families have been allowed to access their children born following the scandal, after DNA testing confirmed they had a genetic relationship to the child.

But for many intended parents, the nature of surrogacy means there is no such connection.

A newborn is carried away from the Chania Hospital with her Italian father, after DNA tests were carried out in the wake of the police raid on the Mediterranean Fertility Centre in Chania, Crete. Picture: Jacquelin Magnay

Hellenic police, who coordinated the raid last month in Athens, will allege the MFI was behind almost 200 cases of exploitation of women in the field of oocyte removal and surrogacy, while deceiving patients through sham embryo transfers (IVF) and brokering illegal adoptions since December 2022.

Authorities are also investigating 400 cases of fraud and personal injury through IVF procedures at the facility.

“The 400 involved mainly women who genuinely thought they were doing egg removal and were injured in the process and did not fall pregnant - Australian women were among those victims of fraud and injury,” a Hellenic police spokeswoman said.

A police raid during the early hours of August 8 culminated in eight staff arrests and newborns placed in detention in a high security section of a Chania hospital.

Police will allege gang leaders were paid €5,000 ($A8,424) per surrogate they recruited from abroad who were then forced to live supervised in 14 homes in Crete.

Originally published as Surrogacy nightmare: Australian couples beg for help