A call for all forms of surrogacy to be abolished has been made by a representative of Pope Francis at the United Nations. Most Western countries ban the practice. Ireland has recently passed one of the most permissive surrogacy laws in Europe.

Speaking at the General Assembly of world leaders in New York a week ago, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Secretary of State of the Holy See said “the practice of so-called surrogate motherhood is deplorable, representing a grave violation of the dignity of both the woman and the child, based on the exploitation of situations of the mother’s material needs”.

He added: “A child is always a gift and never the basis of a commercial contract. Consequently, the Holy See hopes for an effort by the international community to prohibit this practice universally”.

Addressing the wider context, he said that in order to promote women’s equal dignity with men and to protect them from any oppressive practices, “it is of the utmost importance to preserve all those traditional values which highlight the beauty of their being women, which flourishes in motherhood, in mutual reciprocity in family life, as well as in their free and equal participation in social, economic and political life”.