In Mexico, Restrictions Impede Surrogacy

VILLAHERMOSA, Mexico — After years of longing and a mountain of expense, Michael Theologos became a father in December, when a surrogate mother gave birth to his son in this tropical town. He wept as he cut the umbilical cord. Then the trouble began. The next day, officials arrived at the hospital and took the baby, Alexandros, into custody. They said Mr. Theologos, of New York City, had broken a new law that bars surrogate mothers in Tabasco State from bearing children for foreigners. Mr. Theologos, 59, did not see Alexandros again for nearly six weeks.

“You receive your dream and then someone comes over and takes away everything,” said Mr. Theologos, an American citizen who paid $55,000 to an agency for the surrogacy.

Mr. Theologos and his son are among a dozen foreign families who have been tangled up in a legal battle over how to apply new surrogacy restrictions in Tabasco, which for years was the only state in Mexico that allowed foreigners to hire surrogates. Dozens of other families whose babies are yet unborn will face the same quandary, officials and lawyers said.

The imbroglio highlights the legal complexities of commercial surrogacy, experts said. The model in which wouldbe parents from wealthy countries hire surrogates in poorer — and less regulated — nations is “not sustainable,” according to Sam Everingham, global director of Families Through Surrogacy, a nonprofit based in Sydney.

Surrogacy has expanded around