New Zealand man allowed to adopt son born via surrogate despite fraud

A New Zealand man defrauded a fertility clinic to bypass surrogacy laws, yet a court still allowed him to legally adopt the child.

Key Takeaways:

• A New Zealand man contracted a surrogate mother from Uzbekistan to carry a baby for him, working through a fertility clinic in the country of Georgia.

• A judge granted his request to adopt the child, though the arrangement was illegal.

• The judge said the request was approved because otherwise the child would essentially become stateless, leaving the court as a "fait accompli" in the illegal behavior.

The Details:

According to the New Zealand Herald, a man — whose identity remains anonymous — appeared before the New Zealand Family Court to officially adopt a child he fathered through in vitro fertilization (IVF) and surrogacy. The man hired a woman from Uzbekistan to serve as a surrogate mother, working with a fertility clinic in the country of Georgia.

Georgian law requires that would-be parents using surrogates be married or together for at least one year, and have a medical reason to pursue surrogacy.

But instead:

• The man had a woman pose as his wife, which the agency blindly accepted.

• Her age was cited as the reason for needing to use a surrogate.

• He and the woman lived together only for a few weeks before breaking up.

READ: Surrogacy is riskier for both women and babies than most people realize

The man met the surrogate just once, when he gave a sperm sample, and by then, he and his partner had already broken up. He claimed to have informed the agency of the breakup, though it is not clear if this was the case.

Regardless, he continued with the surrogacy alone, which is illegal under Georgia law.

New Zealand does not automatically recognize parentage for the intended parents of children born through surrogacy, which means the man had to request adoption. Family Court Judge Belinda Pidwell approved it, though she didn't hold back on her criticism of the man's illegal behavior, and said the approval was for the child's sake — not his.

Pidwell said:

“There is an uncomfortable inference available that [the man’s] relationship with [the woman] existed purely for the purpose of satisfying the requirements of the surrogacy agreement. Once the pregnancy was viable, the relationship ended.

Without her, [the man] would not have been eligible to enter into a surrogacy agreement in Georgia.”

She also noted that by approving the adoption request, it could potentially encourage others to also pursue illegal surrogacy arrangements, as there are virtually no repercussions.

Yet she said she had no choice, because to deny the request would leave the child stateless; the baby would be a citizen of neither New Zealand nor Georgia, and would be in a legal limbo.

Because of this, she said the man had forced the court to be a "fait accompli" in the case.

A similar situation took place in 2024, though in that case, the surrogate mother was from Thailand.

Zoom Out:

Surrogacy has become a thriving business in the country of Georgia, despite legislative efforts to stop foreigners from renting the wombs of Georgian women. As Live Action News previously reported:

Surveys have found that just five percent of the people renting Georgian women as surrogates are Georgian themselves, meaning the overwhelming majority are foreigners.

The number of babies born to surrogates has doubled in recent years, with most of the women serving as surrogates being single mothers living in poverty. 

There have also been controversies surrounding the fertility industry in Georgia, most notably regarding a trafficking ring in which Chinese gang members trafficked women from Thailand into Georgia, imprisoned them, and then forced them to allow their eggs to be harvested each month.

Other disturbing reports out of Georgia include allegations that agency owners were embezzling money from surrogates, babies are being left alone in the hospital for days, and at least one surrogate mother was forced to have an abortion after the parents refused to pay. 

The Bottom Line:

Surrogacy is the ultimate commodification of both women and children, turning both into products to be bought, sold, and thrown away at will.