Abstract

On 19 February 2015, a law regulating reproductive medicine passed the legislative process in Thailand and was next enacted with the approval of the cabinet and King Bhumibol Adulyadej in July 2015. Since then, some intermediary surrogacy agencies based in Thailand, including Japanese surrogacy agencies, have developed a multinational surrogacy industry with branches in Georgia. This paper is an attempt to clarify the present state of the Georgian surrogacy industry, and also the risks inherent in the Georgian surrogacy industry. The paper aims to provide information which is relevant to the Japanese patients seeking surrogacy treatment as well as researchers in reproductive medicine. Japanese couples need to carefully examine the various options offered by foreign surrogacy agencies and hospitals, because some of them operate without being well versed in the support they provide over procedures to have surrogate children recorded in Japanese family registries so that they may acquire Japanese nationality. Those who are planning to participate in Georgian surrogacy tourism should keep up with the latest legal developments in Georgia, and ponder deliberately whether they still want to go ahead and take part in the reproductive medicine programs there, if at all.