Pope Francis has urged for a worldwide ban on surrogacy, describing the act of a woman carrying someone else’s child as “unacceptable.”
Speaking to diplomats at the Vatican in his New Year’s address, the 87-year-old pontiff emphasized that it is a serious infringement on the dignity of both the woman and the child.
In a speech dominated by efforts to cease global wars, the leader of the Catholic Church said, “The path to peace calls for respect for life.”
This began “with the life of the unborn child in the mother’s womb, which cannot be suppressed or turned into an object of trafficking,” he said.
“In this regard, I deem deplorable the practice of so-called surrogate motherhood, which represents a grave violation of the dignity of the woman and the child, based on the exploitation of situations of the mother’s material needs.
“A child is always a gift and never the basis of a commercial contract. Consequently, I express my hope for an effort by the international community to prohibit this practice universally.”
In June 2022, the pope criticized surrogacy as an inhumane practice.
Altruistic surrogacy, which involves a woman giving birth to a child for another woman or couple without any financial transactions except for necessary expenses, is legally allowed in several countries, such as Belgium, the Netherlands, the UK, Canada, Brazil, and Colombia.
On the other hand, commercial surrogacy is allowed in certain states in the US.
