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In May 2026, a federal judge in Córdoba, Argentina, issued a pre-trial order in a criminal case involving surrogacy arrangements. The order does not amount to a conviction: it establishes that there is sufficient evidence for the case to proceed towards trial.
The judge ordered the prosecution of the director of a fertility clinic, an administrative employee and a lawyer for human trafficking. The lawyer was also prosecuted for making false statements in judicial documents concerning the existence of a prior friendship between the parties, and the allegedly exclusively altruistic nature of the arrangements submitted to the family courts.
The decision attempts to draw a line between autonomous reproductive decisions, and situations in which a surrogate's vulnerability may have been deliberately exploited.
The case began in 2024 following an anonymous report to a national hotline for reporting suspected cases of human trafficking and exploitation. The investigation found that some of the women had previously contacted the clinics as egg donors before being connected with people seeking a surrogate. Nine individuals – doctors, administrative staff, psychologists and lawyers – were initially...