Lotus Surrogacy - Devastating Nepal Earthquake Hits Israeli Backpackers and Would-Be Surrogate Parents

According to the foreign ministry, 25 newborn infants are stuck in Nepal with their new Israeli parents who are waiting to take them back to Israel. These babies’ biological fathers are Israeli men and their biological mothers are anonymous egg donors. The babies are typically carried to term by Indian surrogates who cross the Nepalese border to give birth.

In order for a baby born to a surrogate to receive Israeli citizenship, the child must undergo a DNA test in Nepal. The DNA sample is sent to Israel for verification, and then a judge allows the infant to enter Israel. The process can take several weeks after birth. The foreign ministry is now expediting the procedure with the hopes of getting infants and parents to Israel as soon as possible.

Dana Magdassi, the founder of Lotus Surrogacy, an organization that facilitates Nepalese surrogacy for Israeli parents, said that 10 babies and their 11 Israeli parents are stuck in Kathmandu. They are living in tents outside of the Israeli embassy after they left apartment buildings in the city.

“[The Israeli parents] said that tiles were coming off the walls and things were falling down,” Magdassi said. “They said that some of them took the babies and ran barefoot with a blanket and they stayed many hours on the street, they were not allowed to go upstairs.”

“Some of the babies are only a week old,” she added. “They don’t have enough diapers, food supplies and bottles. [The parents] can’t bathe the babies, they can’t give them normal treatment.”

Magdassi said that she doesn’t know what will happen to the remaining surrogate mothers. Several of them are due to give birth in five weeks, and hospitals are already severely overcrowded.

“We are more worried now about the pregnant surrogates that we still have there.”

_ Reach Naomi Zeveloff at zeveloff@forward.com or on Twitter @naomizeveloff_

_