Pope urges surrogacy ban, says it’s ‘despicable’
Francis says practice, already illegal in most of Europe, exploits ‘mother’s material needs’ to produce a child
ROME — Pope Francis on Monday called surrogate motherhood a “despicable” practice that should be universally banned for its “commercialization” of pregnancy, including the practice among wars, terrorism and other threats to peace and humanity in an annual speech to ambassadors.
An unborn child must not be “turned into an object of trafficking,” Francis said, adding: “I consider despicable 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, he said, should never be “the basis of a commercial contract,” and called for a global ban on surrogacy “to prohibit this practice universally.”
Surrogacy is already illegal in Italy, and compensated surrogacy is also illegal or restricted in much of Europe. The United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Portugal and several other nations allow surrogacy under certain conditions. Paid surrogacy is legal in some European nations, including Ukraine, Russia and Belarus.
Surrogate mothers in the United States and Canada are often hired by Europeans, including same-sex couples, seeking to have children, though some American states have outlawed the practice.
Francis, a constant critic of consumerism’s corrosive effects on humanity, is deeply wary a profit motive will warp the traditional creation of life. While Francis has generally avoided the culture wars over issues of reproduction and homosexuality in order to emphasize priorities such as the care of migrants and the poor, he has always upheld church teaching on the issues and maintained an absolute opposition to surrogacy and abortion. He has equated abortion with “hiring a hit man to resolve a problem.”
The Catholic Church has long opposed surrogacy — as it has in vitro fertilization — for a variety of ethical and theological reasons, and Francis has spoken frequently about what he calls “ideological colonization,” the notion wealthy nations impose their views on people and religious traditions that do not necessarily agree with them. Monday’s denunciation of surrogacy, which was wrapped in that familiar critique, reflected what people close to him call his frustration with what he considers the arrogance of the wealthy West, often toward less affluent parts of the world.
While the pope’s remarks come only weeks after Francis allowed blessings for same-sex couples, many of whom support surrogacy, the church has made it clear that those blessings were not a “justification” or “endorsement of the life that they lead,” but simply an expression of pastoral closeness to believers. In other words, the blessings had nothing to do with ideology and were misread if interpreted as such.
While the church opposes surrogacy, the Vatican’s office on church teaching has made clear that those children born from surrogacy can be baptized. It made that position clear in a recent statement clarifying that transgender people could be baptized. That same office has in recent weeks, with Francis’ explicit approval, allowed the blessing for samesex couples.