French Couple Issues Appeal in Surrogacy Case

KIEV, Ukraine (AP) — A French family detained in Ukraine for trying to smuggle out twins born to a surrogate mother is asking any sympathetic country to grant the children citizenship.

The family was detained last month while trying to take the 2-month-old girls into Hungary.

France does not recognize the citizenship of children born to surrogate mothers and is refusing to issue passports for the girls.

In an appeal issued to news media on Thursday, the family urged any nation in the world that recognizes surrogate births to grant citizenship to the girls.

The girls’ father and his father are free on bail while they await trial in the city of Uzhorod in May. The girls’ French mother has not been charged, but she remains in Uzhorod.