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While surrogacy is banned in Finland, Finnish couples are going abroad to start families. Yle's Swedish-language unit tested how three surrogacy agencies market their services to prospective parents in Finland. These agencies act as intermediaries, helping Finns to find surrogate mothers abroad and draw up contracts. Surrogacy is illegal in Finland, but Finns can still become parents through arrangements made overseas, with parenthood later recognised by Finnish authorities. In most cases, the process uses the intended father's sperm and a donated egg. Misleading messages Surrogacy arrangements carry significant risks for both prospective parents and surrogate mothers, as agencies promote an idealised view of the process, according to an Yle investigation. Yle arranged remote meetings with three agencies known to have Finnish clients: Sweden's Nordic Surrogacy, Ukraine's World Center of Baby and Georgia's New Life Georgia. Two Yle journalists posed as a couple looking for a surrogate. A representative from Nordic Surrogacy claimed that it imposes strict criteria on who can become a surrogate mother in Colombia. Beyond being healthy, the woman cannot be poor. "There has to be a genuine desire to help and create a family, not simply to put food on the table. If she's poor, she won't be approved," the representative said during the meeting. While Nordic Surrogacy claimed Colombian surrogates get 20,000-25,000 US dollars, Yle has obtained a contract from a Colombian woman who was paid 10,000 dollars for carrying a baby for a Finnish couple. When confronted, Nordic Surrogacy's head, Eduardo Afonso, provides a diffuse response via email, saying the payments "can vary depending on the agreement." Three-tier baby packages Yle learned that the Georgian agency New Life Georgia, meanwhile, offers three surrogacy packages: the gold package at 79,000 dollars, the silver at 66,000 dollars and the basic option at 53,450 dollars. During a meeting, a representative explained the gold package guarantees intensive care for the newborn. If the pregnancy ends in miscarriage, the more expensive options include multiple attempts at no additional cost. New Life Georgia required no background information to begin the surrogacy process. The agency did not ask about a criminal background check, health, living conditions or even age. When later contacted for comment about the meeting, New Life Georgia declined to reply. Surrogacy in a war-torn country In Ukraine, the surrogacy agency World Center of Baby has continued operating despite the ongoing war. A representative confirmed that Finns have also had surrogate children there since Russia's invasion. "Yes, of course — many babies," the representative said during the meeting. The Ukrainian agency also painted a rosy picture of the legal environment. In Finland, the woman who gives birth, the surrogate, is always the child's legal mother. On this point, the company's representative gave Yle false information. "Officially, you'll be the child's mother immediately after birth, since the surrogate has no rights to the baby," the representative said. "Do Finnish authorities also consider me the mother?" "Yes, of course," the representative replied. "You'll have the child's birth certificate stating you are the mother." In reality, for a Finnish woman to be legally recognised as the mother in Finland, the surrogate must sign Finnish documents formally renouncing her maternal rights. The agencies' own contracts or papers signed abroad are not valid evidence under Finnish law. None of the agencies Yle contacted mentioned this. Instead, they encouraged hiring a Finnish lawyer to ensure that the administrative process would proceed smoothly. There are no official statistics on the number of children born through surrogacy in Finland, but advocacy groups say the phenomenon is growing. They estimate that in recent years, around 10 such babies have arrived to Finland every year. However, no Finnish authority monitors or bears responsibility for surrogacy arrangements carried out abroad.
