Hania: Parents retrieve babies at center of surrogacy scandal
Four of the nine babies at the center of an illegal adoptions and baby trafficking case in Crete have been handed over to their biological parents, following positive identification through DNA testing.
The babies were born to surrogate mothers in Hania Hospital.
With the permission of a prosecutor, an Italian couple were given their twins while two couples from Australia were also handed their baby.
Results are pending for four more babies – two sets of twins and two others – after an Italian couple, a British couple and a Greek couple have come forward and provided a DNA sample.
A number of people from a fertility clinic are accused of forming and joining a criminal organization to traffic in people, acting as intermediaries in the illegal adoption of minors, violating laws on medically assisted reproduction, forgery, disrupting family order, fraud, bodily harm and violating legislation on narcotics.
According to reports, over 160 women from Romania, Ukraine, Moldova, Albania, Bulgaria and Georgia were trafficked as egg donors and surrogate mothers by the group, which allegedly orchestrated illegal adoptions and offered counterfeit IVF treatments to unsuspecting patients, making between 70,000 and 120,000 euros per baby.
Greece is one of the few countries where commercial surrogacy is legal for international clients.
