Spain’s High Court has ruled that commercial surrogacy constitutes “unacceptable exploitation” of both the child and the biological mother, according to El Pais. A special Oireachtas committee is currently considering how Ireland can facilitate commercial surrogacy overseas.

The case involved a Spanish woman who made a contract with a woman in the Mexican state of Tabasco in 2015 to bear a child with the help of a surrogacy agency.

The court declared that adoption was the better option for protecting “the best interests of the child”.

The judges said that surrogacy treated the baby and the surrogacy “as mere objects, not as persons endowed with the dignity of their condition as human beings and the fundamental rights inherent to that dignity,”

The court was disturbed by the wording of the surrogacy contract. The biological mother had to agree to pass the child immediately after delivery to the commissioning mother, to maintain a consistently nutritious diet, to have frequent ultrasounds, to refrain from sexual intercourse, not to get tattoos, body piercing or cosmetic surgery, not do to do vigorous exercise, and to waive her right to medical confidentiality.

The contract also left in the hands of the commissioning mother the final decision on the life of the surrogate mother if she were to have a life-threatening illness or injury, including brain death.