Poll: Majority of French now favour allowing surrogate motherhood

PARIS: AmajorityofFrenchpeople would favour allowing surrogate motherhood, though primarily only for medical reasons, a poll showed yesterday, highlighting a shift in attitudes as France prepares to review laws relating to assisted reproduction.

All forms of surrogacy, where a woman gives birth to a child on behalf of someone else, are banned in France, as in several other European countries such as Germany. Some countries like the United Kingdom allow for altruistic surrogacies, not commercial ones.

The French government will launch a debate on a new bioethics legislative pact this year, which could see medically assisted reproduction extended to female gay couples and single women, a stance favoured by President Emmanuel Macron.

He opposes introducing surrogate motherhood, however.

Until recently public opinion was also against surrogacy, but the poll by Ifop, published in La Croix, a Catholic newspaper, found that 62 per cent of French people were now in favour of it.

Of those, 46 per cent would only back surrogate motherhood if there were medical reasons to do so, while 18 per cent said they supported it in all circumstances.

In a similar poll last September, 52 per cent of French people rejected surrogacy under any form, versus 36 per cent now.

France’s previous Socialist government legalised samesex marriage in 2013, drawing a strong unexpectedly show of opposition in the run- up to the law from conservatives, especially Roman Catholics, and large street protests. — Reuters