ugc_banner

Internet outrage as Ukraine clinic offers Black Friday discounts on babies

WION Web Team
New Delhi, IndiaUpdated: Nov 24, 2021, 05:54 PM IST
main img
Photograph:(Twitter)

Story highlights

This clinic is offering three per cent off from November 15 to November 26. The clinic's website says: 'Hurry up to make your dream of a baby come true!'

We've all heard of Black Friday sales featuring clothes, shoes, and gadgets, but have you heard of one with discounts on babies?

Ukrainian clinic, BioTexCom Center for Human Reproduction, has sparked outrage online for its Black Friday sale that offers discounts on babies. Yes, you read that correctly...a discount on babies.

This clinic is offering three per cent off from November 15 to November 26. The clinic's website says: "Hurry up to make your dream of a baby come true!" 

On Twitter, the clinic wrote: The best Black Friday deal from a fertility clinic! (2021) Hurry up to make your dream of a baby come true!"

×

In response to the firm's Black Friday discount on its surrogacy and fertility packages, outrage has followed.

The clinic offers a "VIP surrogacy package" for €1,947 and a "Perfect Chance" IVF package for €447.

Those who read BioEdge, a bioethics newsletter that published the offer, said the marketing tool was "dehumanizing."

“What a corrupt/dehumanizing world we live in 2021,” wrote one reader, Pauline L, from Australia.

Another person, Hannah Spanswick comparing this offer to human trafficking commented, "And here was me thinking that child trafficking was illegal!"

"It never ceases to amaze me that some unscrupulous people value money ahead of human life and dignity. There is enough evidence throughout the world that testifies to the trauma of removing a baby from the woman who has carried it and to whom it was born. No amount of spin can change this reality and yet the trade in children continues with no care, responsibility or accountability by those who use these practices to enhance their personal wealth. I hope. I just hope that there is such Karma and these business tycoons are subjected to the same level of emotional pain as those upon whom they inflict it."

Another commenter, Joan, echoed Pauline's sentiments and questioned why the practice was legal. 

“Why is it legal to treat women and the children they bear as second-class citizens?” she questioned, adding “As humans, how low can we go?”

The offer has also drawn negative reactions on Twitter, with users comparing surrogacy to exploitation.

"Today is a good day to tell BioTexCom that there is no difference between surrogacy and exploitation of women. #ReproductiveExploitation #BabiesSold #BlackFriday"

×

Another Twitter user called for denouncing of the firm:

"I am denouncing this company of slavery and the manufacture and sale of human babies in the wombs of women bought for this: they offer rental discounts for Black Friday! They still have the face of "explaining" that women's rental is not slavery. Help me denounce." (translation of the tweet)

×

Ukraine, Georgia, and several states in the US allow commercial surrogacy, in which the host mother receives compensation for bearing a child.

However, despite the fact that the new parents may pay "reasonable expenses" to the surrogate mother, profiting from surrogacy is illegal in the United States.

Watch | Gravitas: On Black Friday, Amazon workers in 20 countries will strike

India is home to the world's largest commercial surrogacy industry, with an estimated $6 billion in revenue.

Altruistic surrogacy, in which the mother receives no compensation, is legal in other countries, such as the United Kingdom.