Australian parents given six weeks to get eggs from Greek surrogacy clinic or they’ll be destroyed

Devastated Aussie parents caught up in the collapse of an overseas surrogacy clinic are in a race against time to collect their embryos before they’re destroyed.

Australians caught up in the collapse of an overseas surrogacy agency have been dealt a fresh blow by being given just six weeks to collect their embryos or see them destroyed.

Family and fertility law specialist Stephen Page, who is representing three of the estimated 38 couples affected by the imminent closure of the facility in Crete, said an “already stressful journey has became even more stressful”.

“My clients have been told ‘You must get your embryos out because we are closing this facility down’” Mr Page said.

Last August, seven staff at the long-running Mediterranean Fertility Institute (including the founder) were arrested amid claims they had forced 169 women from countries including Ukraine, Romania and Georgia into becoming surrogate mothers or egg donors.

Dr Ioannis Giakoumakis, director and specialist on IVF issues of the Mediterranean Fertility Centre based in Crete, Greece.

Mr Page said that after the Institute was shut down, “the government had genetic material sitting in liquid nitrogen containers at the clinic and sooner or later the electricity was going to be turned off because no one paid the rent.”

“The government then moved the material to Chania General Hospital and employed an embryologist,” he said.

“It now no longer has an open-ended cheque book to employ an embryologist for a declining resource and has issued a deadline.”

On April 24, the Hellenic Authority for Medically Assisted Reproduction emailed desperate couples from Australia and Europe with a notice to collect their eggs, embryos and sperm from Chania General Hospital by June 30, when its cryopreservation storage facility will close.

Mr Page said two of his clients had already moved their embryos while a third was yet to do so.

“What concerns me is what happens to the patients who don’t know about the 30 June deadline. Will their material be disposed of, or sent to another clinic, and if so which?”

Mediterranean Fertility Centre was raided by federal police over accusations of human trafficking and fraud. Picture: Facebook

The closure of the Institute had already created shock for its clients, Mr Page said.

“The clinic was operating for 30 years and regulated by the Greek government – it was considered ethical.” he said.

Sam Everingham, founder of Growing Families, a not-for-profit that helps guide Australian families through the complicated surrogacy process abroad, said “a lot” of the 35 couples he worked with had “given up on their dreams of becoming parents”.

The couples had paid as much as €120,000 (A$202,050) “for a surrogacy program that was never carried out” and were now having to find more money to move and store their materials, he said.

“It’s too much to handle, they’ve lost trust, a lot of them have given up,” Mr Everingham said.

The Mediterranean Fertility Institute advertising its services.

The Mediterranean Fertility Institute has been accused of forcing vulnerable women to be egg donors or surrogates and was charging desperate aspiring parents up to $200,000 for babies.

It was also accused of illegal adoptions and fake IVF treatments.

Several Australian families who had children through the organisation had DNA testing to confirm their genetic relationship to their child after the accusations were made.

Hellenic police are investigating almost 200 cases of alleged exploitation of women, as well as 400 claimed cases of fraud and personal injury through IVF procedures undertaken at the facility.

Originally published as Australian parents given six weeks to get eggs from Greek surrogacy clinic or they’ll be destroyed