Pope Francis has expressed his hope that the world would ban surrogacy, which he called a “grave violation” of the dignity of women and children.
He said that surrogacy was based on the exploitation of the mother’s material needs and that it turned the unborn child into a commodity.
While delivering his New Year’s address to diplomats at the Vatican, the 87-year-old pontiff stated: “A child is always a gift and never the basis of a commercial contract. 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.
“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. Consequently, I express my hope for an effort by the international community to prohibit this practice universally.”
The pope had previously denounced surrogacy as an “inhuman” practice in June 2022.
Surrogacy is legal in some countries, such as Belgium, the Netherlands, the UK, Canada, Brazil and Colombia, where only expenses are paid to the surrogate mother.
However, some US states allow commercial surrogacy, where the surrogate mother receives money for carrying the baby.