hi I'm Bill Howden the founder of the sensible surrogacy agency and today we're talking about surrogacy in Colombia our most popular program and a new international hub for same-sex families [Music] thank you now I always tell clients that there are no perfect destinations for surrogacy and as you weigh your options worldwide every country has its unique benefits and its drawbacks and the way that you decide where you should pursue your surrogacy journey is by looking at the advantages and deciding which of those are important and meaningful for you and then you look at the disadvantages and you decide whether or not any of those are frivolous or unimportant and that allows you to decide which destination is most appropriate for your specific needs and at the moment Colombia is the most popular international program that we have and that's because there are a lot of advantages to surrogacy and Colombia and very few disadvantages but not being perfect there are definitely some aspects of a program in Colombia that you should be aware of as you decide where to pursue your surrogacy journey the biggest benefit of surrogacy in Colombia is that the medical care system is outstanding the who which tracks the quality of Medical Care in countries worldwide ranks Columbia 22nd in the world for the quality of Health Care now that puts Colombia right around Sweden in terms of how well they take care of their population has a comprehensive National Health Service which is extraordinary and covers the cost of your pregnancy and the delivery and any complications to the surrogate or to the baby you know and this is important when you're comparing Colombia to other destinations including Mexico and the United States which don't have National Health Services in those countries you need to provide Private health insurance for your surrogate and that comes with a variety of complications you know there are other videos in the series that are going to look at the cost of Medical Care in the U.S and in Mexico and in other countries so I won't go into that here but suffice to say that the existence of a fully comprehensive National Health Service is a big benefit in Colombia and it removes a lot of complications and a lot of potential downside for the costs of surrogacy in Colombia [Music] Colombia is also a known destination for medical tourism internationally the medical facilities in the country are outstanding you know something like 75 percent of the most prestigious highest rated medical facilities throughout Central and South America are located in and around in and around Bogota and as a result Bogota and Colombia generally has become an established destination for medical tourism the second benefit is that Colombia has a reasonably Progressive culture you know this is very supportive of same-sex families and same-sex couples and Columbia has a gay marriage UK adoption gay family rights and non-discrimination laws at all level of the government and there's a provision in the Colombian Constitution that guarantees equal protection for alternative families including families that are conceived by you know quote unquote scientific methods and so assisted reproduction is generally accepted in Colombia and now that includes surrogacy as well third benefit of a surrogacy program in Colombia is the cost you know Colombia is one of the more affordable destinations worldwide you know and we'll get more into the exact cost of surrogacy in Colombia in a bit but suffice to say that the cost of living in Colombia is relatively low so the cost of hiring a surrogate is proportionately lower in general a surrogacy program in Colombia is going to be one half to one-third of a similar program in the United States a final advantage of surrogacy in Colombia is that there is a legal framework supplied by a constitutional Court decision from 2009. and what the court said was that there is no provision in the Constitution or in any law in Colombia that would suggest that surrogacy is against public policy in the country and so the Court ruled that surrogacy agreements and surrogacy Arrangements generally were valid and enforceable contracts under the Constitution they also ruled that babies born through surrogacy have equal rights including rights to their biological and genetic heritage and while that constitutional Court decision doesn't have the exact same weight as actual legislation it does offer an acknowledgment at a national level in Colombia that surrogacy is accepted and that surrogacy Agreements are valid and are not contrary to the country's public policy you know and that puts Colombia miles ahead of us of a lot of countries where surrogacy is totally unregulated including some countries where surrogacy may be considered to be contrary to the local values and like I said the Constitutional Court decision does not have the weight of an actual legislation and there is still no explicit legislation surrounding surrogacy in Colombia and so when the baby is born in Colombia the standard family law dictates that the birth mother is listed on the birth certificate you know this is the first and the biggest disadvantage of surrogacy in Colombia when the baby is born the surrogate's name will be listed on the birth certificate along with the intended father now there is a legal process available in Colombia which is rather unique whereby you can have the surrogate's name removed from the birth certificate by demonstrating that she's not a genetic parent and so the process is to submit to the local courts you know DNA evidence that the surrogate is not genetically related to the baby and under the law in Colombia the court will have a new amended birth certificate issued with the surrogate's name removed now it's important to note that this court process will not replace the surrogate's name with somebody else's it will only remove the surrogate's name so that the birth certificate is amended to show just the name of the intended father but the Practical effect is that the surrogate is removed as a legal parent and it removes any opportunity that the surrogate could have to claim any parental rights either then or in the future and this legal process takes a few months so it's not something you'll wait around for in most cases you'll travel home with the original birth certificate and then a new amended birth certificate will arrive a few months later you know this this disadvantage is the reason why 95 percent of all my clients in Colombia are same-sex couples you know that the intended mother is not listed on the birth certificate and that the surrogate is initially there you know it's a major problem for a lot of intended mothers but same-sex couples don't typically have a problem with that you know like I said earlier you choose a surrogacy destination based on which advantages are important and which disadvantages seem frivolous and for same-sex couples the absence of the mother's name on the birth certificate isn't a big deal in fact it's often considered a good thing but for a lot of heterosexual married couples the fact that the intended mother is not listed on the birth certificate is a huge issue and so most heterosexual couples pursuing surrogacy would likely to prefer a destination like Mexico where the birth certificate could be issued with both the names of the intended parents the mother and the father either way in Colombia when the baby is born the birth certificate would be issued with the surrogate's name and the parents would fly home with a baby and a birth certificate and a few months later a new amended birth certificate would arrive in the mail with the surrogate's name removed and the mother's name left blank now the ultimate goal is to ensure that both intended parents are named on the birth certificate as the legal parents or at least get the legal equivalent and what is normally done at this point is that the parents once they return home would go through a second parent or a step parent adoption process or some similar process that would add the name of the non-genetic parent to the birth certificate where the mother's name is typically shown you know a step parent adoption process or it's equivalent is not a complicated process in Most states it doesn't require any kind of a hearing the parents don't need to appear it's really just a matter of issuing the correct documents to the court and filing the motion but that will have to be done by a local family lawyer in most cases so as surrogacy program in Colombia in most cases requires at the end that you execute some sort of quick legal process when you get home and that will require assistance from a family lawyer plus some additional time [Music] you know the final disadvantage of Colombia is not really a disadvantage at all but something that you probably have heard or read about if you've been on any of the surrogacy and Columbia social groups online so it's worth a quick note here you know Colombia has become a very popular surrogacy destination especially for same-sex couples and over the course of the last couple of years the number of intended parents in Colombia has really grown right especially right after covid restrictions were suddenly lifted and so as a result some of the clinics became really busy and at least one Clinic that I've worked with is seeing a general slowdown of its surrogacy service finding donors matching surrogates some clinical procedures you know and this is a temporary situation and it's limited to just a few clinics and as new clinics come on board we'll see that those those delays evaporate clinics add resources new clinics join and providing services and the overall capacity in the country expands but at the moment it's worth noting that when you start a program in Columbia today which is early 2023 that there are some clinics and that there are some points in the process where you may see some delays and you may spend time waiting for your donor or waiting for your surrogate surrogacy programs in Colombia are available to hetero LGBT and single individuals right the cost of surrogacy in Colombia ranges from 55 000 to 60 thousand dollars you know some surrogacy agencies will include guarantee programs that offer unlimited clinical procedures you know IVF Cycles embryo transfers you know for a fixed cost and those are generally going to run about 65 to 70 thousand dollars in general surrogacy programs in Colombia are what we would be called fixed cost programs and that means that the budget is clearly defined and fixed before you begin the program and you would pay the total amount of the budget to your local agent and then they would disperse the money to the surrogate to the clinic to the lawyers Etc fixed cost programs are popular at International destinations because it's it's a real challenge for intended parents who don't live in that country locally to find the appropriate resources you know to to locate a reputable Clinic to find a good surrogacy lawyer to figure out the best way to compensate their surrogate according to local laws and so in a country like Colombia you know those funds would be paid to your agent and part of your agent's responsibilities would be to make sure that all of the service providers in the program are paid according to the local regulations now fixed cost programs are typically very comprehensive and they include all of the expenses for your surrogacy journey and it would include the surrogate's care and compensation the clinics fees the legal fees administrative fees and other sorts of ancillary costs that you would incur during your surrogacy program overseas but there are a few places where additional costs May creep into the budget and you should be aware of those principally what you should be aware of are what we would call sort of what if costs these are costs that arise during specific or unusual but still possible situations during your pregnancy for example if the pregnant becomes pregnant with twins right usually the surrogate is entitled to additional compensation of about maybe two to two thousand twenty five hundred dollars if she's carrying twins and that would be to cover the cost of the difficulty of a Twin's pregnancy you know other other what if costs would be if the surrogate had a complication that required surgery you know she may be entitled to 500 up to three thousand dollars depending on the severity of the complication and all of those types of payments would be detailed in your surrogacy contract and it's useful to note that they don't actually go to your agent right those are costs that go to your surrogate additional expenses for the extra effort she has to go through during the pregnancy also in most cases overseas programs don't include the cost of PGT or pgs testing and in case you didn't know pgs is an analysis of the embryos that's done before the pregnancy and at its most basic level pgs is a screening for Down syndrome and that's unusually useful in a country like Colombia because the laws on termination of pregnancy in Colombia allow a pregnancy to be terminated if the baby's life is at risk but not for cases of down syndrome right down syndrome isn't considered to be life-threatening and so if you have a concern about Down syndrome the best way to address it is through pgs analysis of the embryos before the pregnancy and that test is going to cost about three thousand dollars you know pgs analysis also has a side benefit that it will determine the sex chromosomes of each embryo uh basically checking to see if the embryos are X Y or xx and telling us the embryos will develop into boys or girls along with your personal travel expenses pgs analysis and the agencies fixed cost budget that would comprise the total cost of your surrogacy program overseas now of course you should check the entire budget with your agent in great detail and you should compare that budget and all of the services that are included uh to other agencies to the budgets of other agencies both in Colombia and in other destinations you know not all agencies pricings is completely transparent and the best strategy for choosing an appropriate agency in Colombia is to get a detailed list of the services provided in a line item budget that shows exactly what's going to be included in the cost of your program and what you want is to compare apples to apples so that you know that there are no additional expenses that you're going to have to incur later on and with that I would invite you to send a message to us here at sensible to find out more about our own surrogacy program in Colombia now you can visit our website at sensible surrogacy.com and there's a wealth of information about surrogacy in Colombia and about surrogacy procedures in general and how they work and what are the risks and what are the opportunities both in the U.S and worldwide and you can fill out the quick form and one of our team will be available to talk with you and guide you through the program and to help you weigh the options of your surrogacy journey or you can send us a note send me a note at Bill sensible surrogacy.com and I'll be happy to schedule a time to talk with you and answer your questions and I hope this video has been clear and helpful you know we'll be making more videos like this one on a variety of subjects so look for those and I look forward to seeing you there foreign [Music]