The European Parliament has condemned the practice of surrogacy.
As it adopted the Annual Report on Human Rights and Democracy in the World 2014, the Parliament approved in its entirety paragraph 114 of the document, rejecting “the practice of surrogacy, which undermines the human dignity of the woman since her body and its reproductive functions are used as a commodity”. The European Parliament also “considers that the practice of gestational surrogacy which involves reproductive exploitation and use of the human body for financial or other gain, in particular in the case of vulnerable women in developing countries, shall be prohibited and treated as a matter of urgency in human rights instruments”
The move was welcomed by the Federation of Catholic Families in Europe (FAFCE), which, in a statement, said: “This position confirms the clear stand of this institution on the matter, already adopted in 2011, with the Resolution on priorities and outline of a new EU policy framework to fight violence against women, acknowledging “the serious problem of surrogacy which constitutes an exploitation of the female body and her reproductive organs”.
FAFCE went on to describe as “important” the timing of the European Parliament’s pronouncement as it comes “in a moment where some Member States are discussing this matter and the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) is also debating a report on Human Rights and ethical issues related to surrogacy”.
“The clear stand in favour of the prohibition of surrogate motherhood expressed in the adopted resolution are good news for which we congratulate the European Parliament,” said FAFCE’s president, Aontoine Renard. “We call on the EU Institutions to give a follow-up in order to systematically treat surrogacy as a matter of urgency, fighting human trafficking for reproductive exploitation and supporting Member States in finding an international instrument which could effectively stop this practice.”