Press release by The Iona
Institute

Government must move to
prohibit surrogacy in the interests of children

Surrogacy splits motherhood
between up to three women

Surrogacy illegal in most
European countries

5 March, 2013  – In light of today’s ruling by the High
Court in the surrogacy case, the Government must now introduce legislation to
prohibit the use of surrogates in order to bring our law into line with most
other European countries and to protect the rights of children.

The right of countries to prohibit surrogacy has been upheld by the European
Court of Human Rights.

In respect of the particular case that came before the High Court, the
court was probably correct to recognise the genetic mother as the mother for the
sake of the child.

But this should not lead to a general recognition of surrogacy because
surrogacy divides or ‘splits’ motherhood between two or more women. It creates
an automatic ambiguity about who the mother of a child really
is.

Surrogacy is sometimes undertaken as an act of generosity, but is an
emotional and legal minefield for all concerned, particularly for the child.
Even in European countries where non–commercial surrogacy is legal, the
surrogacy contract is often not enforceable in law for that
reason.  

Vitally, surrogate motherhood is an absolute violation of the principle in
law that ‘the mother is always certain’.

It forces us to ask whether the ‘true’ mother is the birth (or surrogate)
mother, the genetic mother, or if the woman who raises the child is different
from the genetic mother, the ‘social mother’?

Whose name should appear on the birth cert? Some people argue it should be
neither the surrogate mother nor the genetic mother but whoever has commissioned
the child (the so-called ‘intentional’ parents).

This would officially authorise the falsification of birth
certs.

For these and other reasons, many European countries ban surrogacy and egg
donation outright, including France, Austria, Germany, Italy and Norway, and
their right to do so has been upheld by the European Court of Human
Rights.

Surrogacy involving financial recompense also has great potential for
exploitation. It is normally economically disadvantaged women who offer their
wombs to better–off commissioning couples or individuals.

The Iona
Institute’s recently published paper, ‘The Ethical Case Against Surrogate
Motherhood’ examines the matter in detail.

ENDS

Notes to
Editors

1.         The Iona Institute is a pro-marriage,
pro-family organisation.

2.         The Iona’s Institute’s new paper on
surrogacy can be found here.

3.         Surrogacy is sometimes compared with adoption but is in fact
entirely different. In the case of adoption a child already exists who is in
need of a loving home. In the case of surrogacy, the child does not yet exist
and it is deliberately intended to separate the child from its birth mother
before it is even conceived.  As our paper argues: ‘In treatment for
infertility, the aim is to obtain a pregnancy or baby for the infertile parent;
in adoption the opposite occurs: the aim is to obtain a family for the baby or
child’.