Polish lawyers from the conservative legal think tank Ordo Iuris have notified public prosecutors of alleged offences committed by BioTexCom, the Ukrainian company which offers paid surrogate motherhood programmes and which plans to hold a promotional event in central Warsaw on September 12-13.
Surrogacy remains a highly emotive topic in Poland, particularly given the plight of women participating in such procedures and the children separated from their mothers at birth.
Critics of the practice point to the risk of treating both women and children as objects whereas proponents who are attempting to persuade the government to move for legislative changes emphasise its potential for those unable to become parents in any other way.
The Warsaw event has therefore sparked off a debate on the boundaries of law, reproductive medicine and the commercialisation of parenting.
The planned conference is also a test for Polish institutions, which are being asked about the scope of the company’s operations in Poland. The mere fact of organising a meeting does not automatically constitute a crime, so any actions by law enforcement would have to stem from specific violations of applicable regulations.
BioTexCom is planning to hold a promotion event in Warsaw on September 12-13 aimed at potential Polish clients. Ordo Iuris is accusing the company of illegal organisation of adoptions bypassing Polish adoption regulations, preparing for human trafficking and participating in an organised criminal group.
The think tank lodged its notification with the Warsaw-Śródmieście district prosecutor’s office on September 2. It has also appealed to the prosecutors to stop the organisation of the fair, and asked for a travel ban and passport seizure for those under suspicion and for documentation and electronic data relating to the event to be secured.
According to Ordo Iuris, BioTexCom operates a Polish-language website and communication channels, including Instagram and Facebook profiles, through which it acquires clients interested in paid “surrogate motherhood” programmes and assisted reproduction procedures. The company has also published an online registration form for the Warsaw event.
In Ordo Iuris’ opinion, BioTexCom’s activities are not limited to medical services but encompass the comprehensive organisation of the entire process: acquiring and screening clients, selecting the woman who is to give birth to the child, carrying out medically assisted procreation procedures, coordinating the pregnancy and delivery, and then arranging the handover of the child to the commissioning parties together with documentation enabling them to exercise parental authority.
According to the price list on BioTexCom’s website, the “standard” package costs €39,900, “standard plus” €49,900, and “VIP” €64,900. The same list prices in vitro packages at between €4,900 and €14,900, with extras charged separately.
For that price, BioTexCom gives its clients access to a database with photographs, video interviews, and 3D footage, so that they can view the women from various angles. The company’s clients themselves select both the egg donor and the woman who is to carry the pregnancy and give birth to the child.
The Ordo Iuris notification to the prosecutors concerns the suspicion that BioTexCom is bypassing the provisions of Polish law under which the mother of a child is the woman who gave birth to it, and the acquisition of parental authority by another person requires proceedings before a guardianship court. The complaint cites article 211a of the criminal code, which punishes the organising of adoptions contrary to statute for financial gain with three months to five years in prison.
In addition the think tank argues that the company is potentially engaging in preparations for human trafficking (article 189a) in connection with the paid and organised mechanism leading to the handover of the child to specified persons after its birth as well as participation in a criminal group (article 258) where identified persons are working in an organised structure, including client contacts, marketing, legal service and event organisation promoting illegal acts.
Ordo Iuris also recommends investigation into whether the women taking part in the surrogacy programme are doing so freely or whether they are pressurised by their economic situation, what remuneration they actually receive and whether they are controlled by the organiser.
The conservative legal think tank has consistently argued that surrogate motherhood in its commercial form violates the dignity of both the woman giving birth to the child and the child itself, which in such a model is reduced to the object of a paid transaction.
It is not only the surrogacy services themselves that are contested, but also the information regarding procedures for dealing with developmental defects in a child.
Materials available on the BioTexCom Polish-language website indicate that the decision regarding further treatment rests with the parents, and in certain situations, termination of the surrogate mother’s pregnancy is possible, which would be illegal in Poland. A Constitutional Tribunal ruling of October 22, 2020, published in January 2021, removed foetal abnormality as lawful grounds for abortion, leaving only a threat to the woman’s life or health and pregnancy resulting from a crime. The programme also foresees obliging the potential mother to another attempt at pregnancy.
Ordo Iuris says it is this element of the offer that raises the greatest ethical concerns. In practice, it means that if foetal developmental abnormalities are detected, the client can decide to terminate the pregnancy and then continue the procedure with another attempt.
According to Jerzy Kwaśniewski, the head of Ordo Iuris, “surrogacy is tantamount to 21st-century slavery with poor women treated like living incubators, and children sold like goods.”
“Surrogate mothers are subjected to humiliating selection and control. Very often they must live on so-called surrogacy farms – isolated from their families. And immediately after giving birth, they are forced to hand over the child at once,” Kwaśniewski said in a commentary published on September 3.
“The fuel for this inhuman industry is supplied by well-off couples, often same-sex, who buy themselves children at surrogacy fairs”, he argues.
Kwaśniewski said such fairs had so far taken place only in Germany, Belgiumand France and that protests led to the fairs being driven out of Paris but feared that the leniency of the present Polish centre-left government led by Prime Minister Donald Tusk had emboldened the surrogacy advocates to hold an event in Warsaw.
The situation in Poland is that there is no legal basis for third party reproduction because the courts do not issue pre-birth confirmation of parentage for prospective parents. It is not a ban, rather a lack of legal provision for the practice. The Family Law Codification Commission said in August 2025 that surrogacy was not regulated in Poland and that related conduct could still be assessed under criminal law, including trafficking provisions.
The legal situation is different in Ukraine where there is a legal basis for surrogacy, therefore surrogacy companies see it as an attractive market. Ukrainian family law treats the commissioning couple as the child’s parents, and commercial surrogacy is open there to heterosexual married couples. The holding of a fair in Poland on the issue may mean they hope that the law could change in Poland, but legal change is unlikely given public opposition and the fact that Poland’s opposition aligned President Karol Nawrocki would be certain to veto any legislation.
Opinion polls in Poland indicate strong objections to surrogacy with around two-thirds opposed, but they also oppose same-sex unions adopting children. In November 2025 the Court of Justice of the European Union ruled that Poland must recognise same-sex marriages lawfully concluded in another member state, a position upheld by Poland’s Supreme Administrative Court in March 2026. The court said the ruling did not oblige Poland to provide for such marriages in its own law and did not deal with adoption.
Ordo Iuris has also launched a petition to the Prosecutor General calling for action over the fair. The bioethics experts of the Polish Bishops’ Conference have issued a statement opposing surrogate motherhood and urging state authorities to act, while the Polish Federation of Pro-Life Movements has written to the health minister.
Kwaśniewski and Ordo Iuris have been campaigning for an absolute ban on surrogacy and there has been some success for the international campaign to that end in Italy, where both domestic surrogacy and “surrogacy tourism” are subject to punishment. A law passed on October 16, 2024 extended Italy’s 2004 ban to surrogacy arranged abroad by Italian citizens, punishable by three months to two years in prison and fines of €600,000 to €1 million.
