♪ ♪
MARIANA VAN ZELLER: So, we're about an hour away
from the border,
trying to make it to Ukraine.
And we're sort of in a race against time
trying to get there before curfew.
And we don't know exactly what the situation is at the border,
you know, obviously we're heading towards a war zone.
So they're all a little bit on edge.
(explosions, gunfire)
NEWSCASTER: Moscow has now unleashed
Europe's largest ground conflict since World War II.
NEWS CORRESPONDENT: We are facing
an unprecedented act of aggression.
(boom)
(siren)
MARIANA: This isn't my first trip into dangerous territory.
(gunshot)
For nearly two decades, I've pursued and exposed
the world's most profitable black markets.
But I've never encountered any product quite like this.
(baby cooing)
The commercial surrogacy industry
brings in over $4 billion a year.
Yet, no one knows exactly how many babies are changing hands
around the world.
The industry is outlawed in much of Asia and Europe.
But not here, in war-torn Ukraine.
(explosion)
(scream)
NEWSCASTER: A basement serving as a bomb shelter nursery
for 21 surrogate babies.
(siren)
MARIANA: I was shocked to discover that Ukraine
is one of the world's top destinations
for commercial surrogacy.
And that many of these infants trapped by war
are American babies.
(horn honking)
This story sent me on a journey
to expose the dark side of this global market,
where surrogates are being imprisoned, raped,
and even left to die, manipulated by shadowy players,
who profit from the wombs of vulnerable women.
♪ ♪
MARIANA: So I just got word that there was a baby who was born
today in Ukraine, a surrogate baby.
Project Dynamo is there trying to get this baby,
rescue it, and bring it to safety.
BRYAN STERN: Okay, Dynamo!
MARIANA: Project Dynamo is a U.S.-based organization
that has been operating in this war zone.
BRYAN: You can probably hear the air raid sirens,
'cause they're bombing on the other side of the city.
MARIANA: Their mission: to rescue trapped civilians,
including surrogates and newborns.
I'm due to meet them just across the border in Ukraine.
Oh, wow. So these trucks here, these are all trucks
that are waiting to cross the border.
Trucks full of equipment, military gear, fuel,
anything that can assist with the war.
♪ ♪
(siren)
MARIANA: Mariana van Zeller.
MARIANA: Yes, Lviv.
OFFICER: Okay.
♪ ♪
MARIANA: Medyka is the busiest border crossing
between Poland and Ukraine.
BRYAN: This is a border you can walk across.
So, this is on the target list.
The Russians really want to bomb right here.
They don't because they're afraid of NATO.
MARIANA: Thank you!
BRYAN: But at some point, there's going to be
some Russian artillery guy and he's going to push a button,
and one day they're going to hit a border.
MARIANA: Once I'm through, I finally meet my contact.
Bryan Stern, the cofounder of Project Dynamo.
It is crazy to me what you're doing here.
I mean, you're an American citizen, right?
Former Navy, and you're, you find yourself in Ukraine
rescuing surrogate families and babies.
BRYAN: We've been doing operations pretty much every day
since February 24th, since the day of the war.
MARIANA: Bryan is uniquely qualified for this work.
He's a combat veteran
and a former Navy intelligence officer.
BRYAN: Everyone's boarding the buses.
We're bringing people across the border.
People need help, and being able to do rescue operations
in weird places with Russian bad guys everywhere
and artillery and missiles,
being able to do that is a skill,
and we're very good at this.
MARIANA: Since Project Dynamo's arrival in Ukraine,
they've rescued thousands of people,
including 68 surrogate-born babies.
BRYAN: The first one that we did was premature twin boys.
They were on ventilators, feeding tubes, and incubators,
and the whole bit.
As we picked them up, we were taking artillery fire
from the Russians at both hospitals.
It was early days in the war. MARIANA: Oh, my god!
Did you ever think, did you think when you started this
that the surrogacy industry would be so big
and that you'd have to be a part of so many rescues?
BRYAN: Honestly, I didn't really know anything about surrogacy
when I came here.
MARIANA: Neither did I.
♪ ♪
So before I set off into Ukraine,
I track down a Ukrainian surrogate,
who is seeking refuge in Poland.
What did you do when the war broke out?
(siren)
(explosions, screaming)
MARIANA: More than 7 million Ukrainians have fled the country
since the Russian invasion.
Most are children and women, including surrogates, like Olya.
Was it your decision to move, or were you asked to move
because you were carrying this baby?
(speaking Ukrainian)
KATE: The second option, because she was asked to, yes.
MARIANA: Mm-hmm.
KATE: The biological parents were really insistent
that they have to be moved.
MARIANA: Olya is four months pregnant.
She's carrying a child for a couple from Seattle,
who turned to surrogacy after nine miscarriages.
Because Olya signed a contract,
she's not entirely in control of her body,
and this reproductive arrangement is far from unique.
Today, more than a quarter of American women
struggle with impaired fertility,
and media outlets are sounding the alarm.
NEWSCASTER: Humans across the globe
are becoming increasingly less fertile.
WHOOPI GOLDBERG: Birth rates in America have fallen
to the lowest levels in about 90 years.
MARIANA: Science now offers solutions,
and surrogacy is one of them, as seen in advertisements
that highlight the marketplace in Ukraine.
MARIANA: Commercial surrogacy allows an infertile couple
to implant their embryo into a healthy third-party surrogate
for an agreed-upon price.
In the United States, that can cost as much as $200,000.
While in Ukraine, Europe's poorest country,
it's as little as $30,000.
I think one of the concerns that people have with surrogacy
is this idea of the commercialization of the womb.
Do you feel like your womb,
your body is being used in a, as a product?
MARIANA: And can I ask you,
why did you become a surrogate mother?
MARIANA: When Olya delivers this baby, she'll be paid $24,000.
That's six times her annual salary.
A life-changing sum for her.
But I discovered that Olya must give birth in Ukraine.
She can't stay in Poland.
BRYAN: In a lot of countries, surrogacy is against the law.
So, if a surrogate gives birth in Poland,
because they don't recognize surrogacy,
that baby belongs to her.
MARIANA: If Olya then tries to give the baby
to its American parents,
she could be charged with child trafficking
and the baby becomes a ward of the Polish state.
So as crazy as it seems and it sounds,
the only way for them to actually give birth
to these surrogate babies is here, being here...
BRYAN: Correct.
MARIANA: ...in a war zone in Ukraine.
That's why Bryan and I are at the border,
waiting for an American couple that's traveled 6,000 miles
from their home in San Francisco
to rescue their newborn son, Vincent,
who was born to a Ukrainian surrogate last night
inside a war zone.
♪ ♪
BRYAN: People get killed out here every single day.
I mean, just happens.
They're not safe until they're safe.
MARIANA: Bryan and his team quickly move us
to an undisclosed safehouse
outside Ukraine's westernmost city, Lviv.
Where I finally get an opportunity
to speak with baby Vincent's parents.
Did you guys always want to have kids? Was that always the plan?
GIO GALERA: Absolutely.
CANDACE GALERA: Yeah. Definitely.
GIO: You know, I mean, obviously there's the family element
that are like, "Gio, it's your turn, you know,
you're, everyone's getting to have families now,
what's going on, you know?"
And that's kind of the Asian family thing, I guess.
MARIANA: It's a Portuguese family thing, too.
GIO: Yeah, Portuguese, too, right?
But in our hearts, too, we both wanted children.
MARIANA: Gio and Candace have known each other
since childhood, but it wasn't until their early thirties
that they reconnected, fell in love, and got married.
When Candace was diagnosed with uterine cancer,
the couple turned to surrogacy to start their family.
It was too expensive in the U.S.,
so they traveled to Ukraine for the procedure,
and were told to return in about nine months.
(explosion)
(siren)
But then, the Russians attacked.
NEWSCASTER: Across Ukraine, the invasion set off
a desperate rush to take shelter...
NEWSCASTER (overlapping): So the biggest attack
on one nation against another.
CANDACE: We didn't go to work for like a month,
just straight CNN, day, night.
It was, it was scary. It was definitely, definitely scary.
GIO: Right.
MARIANA: With their baby in harm's way,
they knew they had no choice but to come rescue him.
GIO: We wanted to nurture someone.
We wanted to bring forth a life and give all the gifts.
CANDACE: Give love, yeah.
GIO: All the gifts that we have.
You know, like, I want to share that with them.
And I want to see what comes out of this, you know?
And I want to...
MARIANA: You're making me cry.
I've met you just for a few hours,
and I can already tell you guys are going to be amazing parents.
GIO: Thank you. Thank you so much.
MARIANA: It's true.
All the love, I can, I can see and I can feel it.
GIO: Yeah. I mean, from the moment he was a little peanut,
we could't get him off our mind.
The whole concept, you know?
MARIANA: It is the best thing in the world.
GIO: Amen. Thank you.
MARIANA: But rescuing Vincent isn't guaranteed.
(air raid siren)
BRYAN: There is no embassy to call.
It's not here.
If things go wrong, it's our problem to deal with.
So, we are very much on our own.
BRYAN: We're rolling to get baby Vincent.
So the surrogate needs to be put on ice for a little bit.
And we'll be baby-on-board, maybe an hour.
MARIANA: Less than 24 hours ago, baby Vincent was born.
Now, Bryan Stern and his medical team are on an urgent mission
to get him out of the war-torn country.
BRYAN: I'm always kind of nervous,
because things go wrong.
Things just happen.
MARIANA: The plan is for Bryan to pick up Vincent
from the hospital, then deliver him to his parents,
who are heading towards a safer meeting point outside the city.
BRYAN: I don't really take a deep breath
until I get them out of Ukraine as soon as we can.
♪ ♪
Alright, rock and roll.
♪ ♪
(woman speaking Ukrainian)
(phone chimes)
GIO: Oh, man. Hold on.
She's telling us now that
the baby must be given to our hands only.
MARIANA: The hospital refuses to release the baby
to anyone other than his biological parents.
But for Bryan and the Project Dynamo team,
that's not the only hurdle they face
in getting Vincent out of the country.
BRYAN: So, the problem is, is that the passports say one thing
and the marriage certificate says something else, correct?
I under--I understand.
Their paperwork is (bleep).
And it'll be Candace's maiden name, probably,
if I had to guess.
And therefore they're not sure if they can issue
a birth certificate in the right names.
Ah, (bleep).
This whole thing is a mess!
MARIANA: These roadblocks exist for good reason.
(babies crying)
Ukraine produces some 2,000 surrogate births each year.
It's critical that they make sure
these babies don't get misplaced,
or worse, trafficked.
(siren)
Project Dynamo is fighting the good fight,
helping to unite desperate families.
But the chaos of war could have a profound effect.
(explosion)
Pushing the surrogacy market into less regulated countries.
NEWSCASTER: There's been a storm of controversy
over the Indian government's move
to restrict child surrogacy.
It considers it a "rent-a-womb" industry
that exploits impoverished young women.
MARIANA: India was once the top destination
for commercial surrogacy before the country banned it in 2015,
when it discovered women were being abused and exploited,
and an untold number of babies were sold onto the black market.
Thousands of miles south of Ukraine,
I've heard these horror stories are taking place
in one of the industry's newest frontiers.
♪ ♪
MARIANA: If I'm going to investigate the criminal corners
of this marketplace,
I need to speak with people who know criminals.
♪ ♪
That's why my Kenyan contacts put me in touch
with these two women.
Do you think that the parents, the foreign parents,
know that this is happening? Do they care?
MARIANA: Mary is a former prostitute who now advocates
on behalf of sex workers' rights.
Her friend, who we'll call Michelle,
does not want to be identified,
because she recruits Kenyan women into commercial surrogacy.
She says it offers an escape from extreme poverty
if it's done right.
MARIANA: Right.
MARIANA: Unregulated surrogacy markets are expanding
around the world, especially in countries like Mexico, Colombia,
and right here in Kenya.
(baby cries)
Mary and Michelle tell me it can be a very dirty business,
one that operates in Nairobi's shadows.
Do you hear a lot of these stories
of women being exploited?
Of them not being paid what they were told,
violation of their rights?
MARY: Yes. It is right.
MARIANA: Really? You hear this a lot?
They share horrific stories
of surrogates dying during childbirth,
others held captive for months.
And all of it for the product growing in their womb.
The entire process costs tens of thousands of U.S. dollars.
But many surrogates get paid as little as 500 bucks.
MARIANA: Who's keeping the rest of the money?
Because we know that it's much more money.
MARIANA: The agent is keeping the money.
These agents are the linchpins in an underworld supply chain
that connects foreign couples
from Europe and the United States
with Kenyan doctors and, of course, surrogates.
MARIANA: Surrogacy isn't technically illegal in Kenya.
In fact, it's openly advertised.
But there aren't any specific laws regulating it.
That means couples must hire costly lawyers
to navigate the country's child trafficking laws.
Which, ironically, ends up fueling
cheaper black market operators like Michelle.
And I'm going to go around this way?
MICHELLE: Yeah.
MARIANA: Straight.
Tonight, she plans to recruit another surrogate
from inside a Nairobi slum.
(horn honking)
This way, yeah? MARY: Yeah, yeah.
MARIANA: Snatchers? MARY: Yeah.
(horns honking)
(horn honking)
MARIANA: Far away from Nairobi's tourist districts,
Michelle offers to show me how she recruits surrogates.
So where are we going?
MARIANA: Why do you think she'd be a good person
to be a surrogate?
MARIANA: Oh, wow.
It turns out Michelle is a pimp,
and the women she recruits are prostitutes.
A fact she doesn't mention to the foreign couples.
Do you think there is a stigma attached to sex workers
that would make parents perhaps not want to have sex workers
as their surrogate mothers?
MARIANA: Michelle claims she's doing this
to empower the country's desperate women.
Here. Okay. So, Michelle, do you go out?
Okay, we'll be here waiting.
MICHELLE: Alright.
(car door shuts)
♪ ♪
MARIANA: She went inside.
Here, can you see if you can hear her?
You can hear?
MARY: No.
MARIANA: Okay, here she is.
Can you hear her now? MARY: Yeah.
MARIANA: Oh, wow.
MARIANA: Wow. So she's calling it "my child?"
MARY: Yes. "My child, my child."
MARIANA: Oh, so she, she's, she's into the idea?
(Mary sighs)
MARIANA: Do you feel good?
MARIANA: Oh, so you want to go there now?
MICHELLE: Yeah.
MARIANA: In some black markets, it's hard to tell
the good guys from the bad.
I can't yet decide if I think Michelle is actually
helping Kenyan women or just helping herself.
She claims she's liberating them from the dangers of sex work,
but she may be steering them towards
an equally dangerous undertaking.
♪ ♪
The following morning, Mary takes me to meet
a former surrogate called Ashley,
who experienced these dangers firsthand.
MARIANA: About a year ago,
Ashley was approached by a surrogacy agent,
a well-dressed Kenyan woman in a fancy car
who began grooming Ashley.
MARIANA: Once Ashley agreed to carry a child,
the agent took her to a fertility clinic,
where they implanted the embryo
and promised to pay her just over 800 U.S. dollars.
Did you want to know any information about the parents?
MARIANA: Ashley was given a strict set of rules.
She couldn't tell anyone what she was doing,
she couldn't contact anyone.
She could never, ever leave the apartment.
MARIANA: Did you think it was strange that they didn't let you
get out of the house?
MARIANA: Ashley's rent was paid for,
and every week, someone brought her food.
MARIANA: Oh, so you wouldn't be able to see who it was.
ASHLEY: Yeah.
MARIANA: Even though they told you the rules
was you couldn't tell anyone, why didn't you?
MARIANA: What happened next almost did kill Ashley.
Her body began cramping and bleeding.
She was going into labor.
Ashley was rushed to the hospital.
Did they know you were a surrogate
or did they think you were just a pregnant mother?
MARIANA: And you never saw the baby?
You don't remember delivering?
(baby crying)
(heavy breathing)
♪ ♪
MARIANA: And then you woke up,
and suddenly you were in a different hospital?
MARIANA: The agent who'd recruited Ashley was gone.
MARIANA: So they didn't actually pay you the whole money?
MARIANA: Did you ever think of going to the police
and telling them what happened to you?
MARIANA: In this murky industry, with no clear regulations,
a vulnerable woman like Ashley had little security.
She never signed a contract.
All she had was the agent's cell phone number.
(phone ringing)
AUTOMATED VOICE: We're sorry.
Your call cannot be completed as dialed.
Please check the number and try again.
(beeping)
♪ ♪
MARIANA: He tells me to call him Peter.
He isn't the agent who cheated Ashley,
but he plays the same role in the surrogacy supply chain.
Why do you use the word corrupt?
MARIANA: But do you think that's a good thing or a bad thing?
♪ ♪
MARIANA: Wow.
So you recruit young female workers?
PETER: Young female workers.
MARIANA: Peter runs a legal employment agency
that places Kenyan domestic workers
in households throughout the Middle East.
But that's not his only source of income.
MARIANA: I do.
Peter is simultaneously managing his employment agency
and a black market surrogacy operation.
MARIANA: Do you make more money from sending these women abroad?
MARIANA: Even though surrogacy isn't illegal in Kenya,
doing it lawfully can be challenging
and cost-prohibitive,
and that's where Peter's operation comes into play.
As an underworld agent, Peter is the powerful liaison
between infertile foreign couples
and some of Kenya's most desperate women.
And he claims to have used these women
to successfully deliver babies to clients from Russia, Turkey,
the Philippines, and, yes, the United States.
For his part in the operation, he tells me he receives
somewhere between $20,000 and $40,000.
Of that money that you receive,
how much of that money goes to the surrogate mother,
and how much of that money goes to you?
MARIANA: I mean, they have a point.
PETER: It's a give and take. And they have a point.
MARIANA: Yeah. PETER: Yeah.
MARIANA: Because you are in the perfect position
to exploit these girls, right?
MARIANA: And so do you?
MARIANA: Peter tries to persuade me
that he's an honest broker in a dishonest business.
MARIANA: He tells me he's not the only one
running surrogates in Nairobi's shadows.
MARIANA: And why do you think that is? Why Kenya?
MARIANA: We head to the safe house?
PETER: Alright. MARIANA: Okay.
♪ ♪
MARIANA: Peter keeps his pregnant surrogates
in what he calls a safe house far outside of town.
Are the surrogate mothers in the safe house the whole time?
♪ ♪
MARIANA: Are we close?
♪ ♪
MARIANA: One of the things that Peter told us
was that he prefers if the women stay in the house
and don't go out for big walks, or don't...
MARIANA: He doesn't like it.
I managed to convince Peter to wait outside
while I interview one of his surrogates, Sylvie.
So, I know they're outside.
I just want to make sure that you feel comfortable
and you don't feel pressured to do anything.
SYLVIE: I'm not pressured at all.
MARIANA: Do you ever leave the safe house
or you're here all the time?
SYLVIE: I don't leave the house.
MARIANA: Ever?
SYLVIE: I only go upstairs where we hang our clothes.
MARIANA: Uh-huh.
SYLVIE: For my exercise, I do it here.
I walk here.
MARIANA: And so, you never, ever leave?
SYLVIE: I don't leave.
♪ ♪
MARIANA: Sylvie tells me she's a single mother
who was desperately searching for housekeeping work overseas
until Peter convinced her that surrogacy
would be much more lucrative.
SYLVIE: My kids don't know. My family don't know.
My mom doesn't know. Nobody knows.
MARIANA: Mm-hmm.
In fact, Sylvie's family believes
she is working in the Middle East.
That's why Peter's safe house is located
on the outskirts of the city,
far away from anyone who might recognize Sylvie.
Can I ask you how much money you're making?
Mmm.
MARIANA: Can I just ask you if it's more than $5,000?
SYLVIE: You know, it's less than.
MARIANA: So it's less than $5,000?
SYLVIE: Yeah.
MARIANA: That may not sound like much,
but it's a significant amount of money in a country
where a third of all Kenyans live on less than $2 a day.
And Sylvie tells me it will change her children's lives
for the better.
MARIANA: That's what he said. That's how he said it.
♪ ♪
MARIANA: I came to this safe house expecting to meet
a deliberately misinformed surrogate under Peter's control,
but Sylvie knows that she's likely participating
in a black market.
One with no guarantees,
and potentially life-threatening risks for her and the baby.
Were you concerned about that? Did you ask those questions?
♪ ♪
MARIANA: It seems everyone I've met
is taking calculated risks for the money.
♪ ♪
(horn honking)
But there's still one missing link in Peter's supply chain.
So we've been trying to get a doctor to talk to us,
because one of the things about the surrogacy industry
is that without, without doctors, it really doesn't work.
And we've been hitting brick wall after brick wall.
They stand to lose a lot, including their jobs,
if they talk about this.
But Peter has convinced his doctor to meet us today.
I've heard he's super nervous,
but I'm hoping that we can convince him to talk.
(phone chimes)
Okay. He says he's here.
I think that's him.
♪ ♪
MARIANA: Okay, Doctor, what do you think would happen to you
if you were caught?
MARIANA: This is the doctor that's the linchpin
in Peter's black market operation.
While Peter oversees the foreign couples,
the surrogate recruitment, and the safe houses,
it all means nothing without a medical professional
who can supervise the pregnancy.
And because the doctor works at
one of Nairobi's best public hospitals,
he has the perfect cover,
delivering illegal surrogate babies
without raising suspicion.
Doc, how did you get involved in the surrogacy business?
MARIANA: And so what convinced you to do it then?
MARIANA: Sub-Saharan Africa has the world's highest
maternal mortality rate.
A Kenyan woman is 15 times more likely to die during childbirth
than a woman in the United States.
The doctor tells me he personally knows of Kenyans
who have died delivering babies for foreign couples.
But because this is illegal,
their families never find out what happened to them.
Are you getting emotional talking about this?
♪ ♪
MARIANA: How many other doctors
are out here in Kenya doing this?
MARIANA: A dozen?
MARIANA: The doctor tells me he's delivered surrogate babies
for Australians, Canadians, and Americans,
sometimes five babies a month; so many that he's lost count.
So why did you agree to talk to us?
♪ ♪
MARIANA: Sorry, there's a car that parked
right there with, uh, smoke windows
that looks very suspicious.
(beep)
Hey, guys, can you hear me on walkie?
Hi.
Hey, any idea who that car is that parked right there?
MARIANA: Nobody came out of the car.
If it's, could be undercover cops,
it could be a lot of things.
We send someone in my team to investigate.
Okay, she's walking.
♪ ♪
Let's see what she says.
MARIANA: They're definitely checking us out, 100%.
I don't know what you want to do, move, move or...
Hey, guys, we're not feeling comfortable,
and Doctor is definitely not feeling comfortable
with this location right now, so we're going to move.
I've been in enough of these situations
where I know when we're being watched.
♪ ♪
(horn honking)
♪ ♪
Are they coming?
MARIANA: The doctor is too frightened to continue,
but he gives me a lead on where to head next.
He says he only delivers the babies,
he doesn't create and implant the embryos.
That has to happen inside of one of the six
state-of-the-art IVF clinics.
We know there's an existence of this black market,
and this black market doesn't exist without an IVF clinic.
It just doesn't.
MARIANA: Dr. Joshua Noreh is the Medical Director
at the Nairobi IVF Center,
the biggest fertility clinic in the country,
where they perform up to 100
embryo implantations every month.
But how can you be sure that the surrogate mothers
that you're implanting
aren't in fact going to be exploited later on?
MARIANA: Does that bother you, knowing that possibly
you're a part, a very important part of this process?
MARIANA: Dr. Noreh assures me that his clinic
takes great pains to vet their surrogates
and weed out criminal operators.
But because the IVF process is highly specialized,
it's clear that at least one of Kenya's six clinics
is implanting embryos
into the country's black market surrogates.
What I still don't understand is how the babies
are getting out of the country.
In Kenya, custody can only be transferred
to the biological parents through the court system.
But that can take months, even years,
which sends frightened foreigners
into the arms of the underworld.
If it is completely illegal,
then how are the parents being able
to take the kids out of the country?
MARIANA: So the paperwork is forged?
MICHELLE: Yes.
MARIANA: But the doctor knows the baby didn't come from...
MICHELLE: Yes.
MARIANA: Oh, you pay the doctor? MICHELLE: Yes.
MARIANA: I came to Kenya in search of a black market
that operates in Nairobi's shadows.
Instead, I uncovered an open secret.
One that takes place in broad daylight.
This lucrative supply chain connects couples
with savvy agents who manipulate poor surrogates
and pay off some ambitious doctors,
inside the city's best hospitals.
With so many illicit steps needed to procure a baby,
it's hard to believe that couples
from places like Australia and America
are kept completely in the dark.
Do you think they know that?
MARIANA: You tell them, look, what you're doing is actually illegal?
MARIANA: And what do they say?
MARIANA: They do it?
(children shouting playfully)
(sobbing)
NEWSCASTER: And once again, in the center of Europe,
innocent women, men and children are dying.
MARIANA: By the fourth month of the war in Ukraine,
nearly 9,000 civilian casualties were documented
across the country.
(bell tolling)
This grim statistic wasn't going to deter one American couple.
GIO: Whether it takes a war or, you know, whatever,
for us to go through to get, to get this,
that's nothing to us, no. It's all worth it.
MARIANA: Unlike Kenya, there are specific laws
regulating commercial surrogacy in Ukraine.
These laws are intended to make sure that every child
is delivered to its rightful biological parents.
Gio and Candace were initially having difficulty
proving their relationship to their son.
But Bryan Stern and Project Dynamo
were able to clear up the confusion.
So Candace and Gio just met
the surrogate mother's mother and son.
The surrogate mother is inside with the baby,
and this is the moment of the big, the big meeting.
You know, they're very, very anxious and nervous
for this moment.
BRYAN: You guys ready? CANDACE: Yeah.
BRYAN: You guys ready? GIO: Yes, I'm ready.
BRYAN: You ready, you want to meet him?
MARIANA: (gasps) Oh, my god! That's the surrogate mother!
♪ ♪
After years of frustration trying to conceive,
a 6,000-mile journey, and a full-scale war,
Gio and Candace are finally going to meet their son.
GIO: Oh, he's come, he's coming right now.
BRYAN: He comes.
MARIANA: So this is it! Oh, wow, the baby's coming out.
BRYAN: Baby Vincent!
♪ ♪
MARIANA: What's the first thing you're going to do
when you see him?
CANDACE: Baby breath, just everything. (chuckles)
♪ ♪
BRYAN: He looks just like you.
GIO: That smell, you know that baby smell?
I want to smell my boy for the first time.
You know what I mean? Like, feel that?
MARIANA: Oh, I do.
GIO: And it's becoming a reality.
(sniffles)
♪ ♪
Vincent.
♪ ♪
We want to bring forth a life
and give all the gifts that we have.
Oh, you're...
CANDACE: Oh, he's so beautiful.
♪ ♪
MARIANA: As this American family makes its way
out of war-torn Ukraine,
there's no doubt that of all the products I've pursued
in my career, this one is the most beautiful.
This is a marketplace that isn't initially motivated by greed,
but by love.
Then why does it go wrong in so many parts of the world?
Why do you think it is an industry
that is prone to having this dark side?
SUSAN KERSCH-KIBLER: Because it preys on people's
hopes and dreams
in a very vulnerable situation.
Surrogacy is never someone's first option.
It's always their very, very last option.
MARIANA: Susan Kersch-Kibler has been a helpful
and insightful contact since the very start of my investigation.
She's a commercial surrogacy advocate
and the owner of Delivering Dreams International Surrogacy,
the Ukraine-based agency that employs Olya.
Why do you think surrogacy is illegal in so many countries,
including in countries where it used to be legal?
SUSAN: They didn't have any regulations, nothing.
There's so many intermediaries taking money,
no standards of care,
no standards of protection for the women; nothing.
MARIANA: In my experience, that's true of any black market,
profits are valued over people, even if those people
are pregnant women and unborn babies.
Susan believes that outlawing surrogacy isn't the solution;
regulation is.
But creating new laws to protect Kenya's surrogates
is far from guaranteed.
Until then, they're at the mercy of the black market.
And can I ask you, Agnes,
how much money are you making from surrogacy?
MARIANA: 25...
thousand doll--25,000 dollars?
MARIANA: Agnes is another sex worker Michelle recruited.
But the payment she's been promised
sounds extremely suspect.
It's far more than any surrogacy offer I've encountered in Kenya.
That's a lot of money.
Is she really going to get $25,000?
MARIANA: Agnes is already seven months pregnant.
She's carrying a child for a German couple.
Have you received any money whatsoever, Agnes?
Nothing yet.
Doesn't part of the money, should come before?
MARIANA: But that's really risky,
considering you're already seven months pregnant.
Are you sure you're going to receive that money?
I trust Michelle.
MARIANA: You trust Michelle.
From what I've seen, trust isn't enough
to protect Kenya's surrogates from exploitation.
And even if Agnes receives
all the money she's been promised,
her story will be the exception, not the rule.
(baby crying)
Captioned by Side Door Media Services