EU Parliament urged to oppose surrogacy

COMECE, the Brussels-based commission of bishops’ conferences in the European Union, has urged EU member states to combat commercial surrogacy by refusing registration for babies born abroad by this process, writes Tom Heneghan.

Surrogacy is “a violent assault on the human dignity of all involved” and has become a lucrative business in several countries including the United States, India, Thailand, Ukraine and Russia, Comece bioethics experts said in a paper submitted to the European Parliament.

All EU countries ban commercial surrogacy within their borders, but many effectively allow it through a loophole by which some “recompense” is allowed for surrogate mothers abroad, it said. Officials usually register foreign-born surrogacy babies brought to Europe with their new parents, arguing that the interest of the child to be registered and accepted trumps the legal ban.