Surrogacy clinic in Colombia stops recruiting new women

Customers from Sweden and all over the world travel to the surrogacy clinic Celagem in Colombia to have children. The company is responsible for the medical part of the surrogacy process and has recruited both egg donors and surrogate mothers for prospective parents who want to start a family.

Recently, DN revealed that women who sold their eggs to Celagem's surrogate arrangement are also selling their bodies on global live sex sites.

This week, the clinic's customers learned that Celagem stops recruiting new women who can carry and give birth.

The founder, Pedro Ezequiel Martínez Diaz, writes in an email to DN that he made the decision to no longer "directly participate in the marketing, active search or recruitment of surrogate mothers in Colombia", in light of new Colombian legislation.

The law, which was passed this summer, criminalizes human trafficking for the purpose of "reproductive exploitation".

However, Pedro Ezequiel Martínez Diaz emphasizes that commercial surrogacy arrangements are still legal in Colombia, and that Celagem will continue with its medical and clinical services.

But finding women who want to carry and give birth to children for others must be handled by "independent third parties", he writes. And Celagem will continue to recruit new egg donors.

Earlier this week, the surrogate intermediary Tammuz - which cooperates with Celagem - informed its Swedish customers about the decision.

In the email, which DN has read, it appears that Celagem's announcement will mean "significant delays" for all expectant parents who are waiting to be matched with a surrogate mother in Colombia. It is probably about processes that can now be postponed for several years, according to DN's sources.

DN has for several days sought the surrogate agency Tammuz, which did not respond.