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Legal Status of Surrogacy in Finland

Senior Adviser Salla Silvola

Ministry of Justice

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Current legal status

• Act on Assisted Fertility Treatments (1237/2006) prohibits provision of assisted fertility treatments, if ”there is reason to presume that the child will be given up for adoption”.– IVF-assisted surrogacy is forbidden

• Adoption Act (22/2012) prohibits granting adoption e.g. ”if any remuneration for the adoption has been given or promised”.– Commercial surrogacy in any form is forbidden

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Former legal status

• Prior to Act on Assisted Fertility Treatments (i.e. prior to 1.9.2007, when the Act entered into force)– Gap in legislation allowed fertility clinics to provide non-commercial

IVF-surrogacy

– Surrogate mothers were either close relatives or friends/volunteers

– During 1991-2001 approx. 20 surrogacy arrangements, 11 births

– Reported cases of depression (2/10), legal dispute of motherhood (1), uncertainty of paternity during pregnancy (1)

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Finnish cases of surrogacy abroad• National Advisory Board on Social Welfare and Health Care

Ethics: – Estimate: 5 couples going abroad annually– No statistics

• July 2012– Helsinki Appeal court confirmed paternity of twins born by surrogacy

in Russia on the basis of a Russian birth certificate

• October 2012– Helsinki Appeal court did not confirm the intended mother as

custodian on the basis of a Russian birth certificate

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Current legal activity

• Statement by National Advisory Board on Social Welfare and Health Care Ethics in 2011– In some single cases IVF-surrogacy may be ethically acceptable– Further legal analysis must be carried out

• Memorandum on surrogacy published by Ministry of Justice September 2012– Memorandum gives three choices:

1. Maintaining legal status quo2. Allowing non-commercial surrogacy without restrictions3. Allowing non-commercial surrogacy in single cases

– Memorandum does not take a stand which alternative should be preferred

– Deadline for comments: mid-November 2012