How Does Surrogacy Affect Human Dignity?
As infertility becomes a growing issue around the world, more people are turning to artificial reproductive technologies to build their families. Well-intentioned practices, like surrogacy, treat women and children as commodities to be bought and sold, rather than as human beings with intrinsic value. That’s why WYA has always said no to surrogacy.
Mislav Barišić, WYA’s Director of Policy and Research, explains why surrogacy is a human rights issue that should matter to everyone.
“Even if surrogacy affects only a minority, the ethical and legal precedents it sets touch everyone,” he says. “When human life becomes something that can be bought, sold, or contracted, society as a whole is affected. It’s in everyone’s interest to uphold human dignity, safeguard women from exploitation, and ensure that children are treated as persons, not products.”
Thankfully, some countries and organizations are having second thoughts about surrogacy. Last year, Italy banned the practice. Now, the UN Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women and Girls is looking into the harms that surrogacy causes.
What is a UN Special Rapporteur?
A UN Special Rapporteur is an independent expert appointed by the United Nations Human Rights Council to monitor, report, and advise on specific human rights issues. Special Rapporteurs present findings and expert recommendations to the UN. This spring, the UN Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women and Girls issued a public call for facts, perspectives, and analyses on the effects of surrogacy. Governments, civil society organizations, and individuals were all invited to lend their voices to the conversation.
WYA sent in a submission detailing the many harms of surrogacy. Our submission covered several important points.
Surrogacy treats women as objects.
Our submission began by articulating one of the most fundamental issues with surrogacy: its treatment of women as objects rather than as human persons. As the submission notes:
“At its core, surrogacy treats the female body as a tool for reproductive services, separating a woman’s identity from her biological and relational connection to the child she carries. This is true whether a surrogacy agreement is commercial or altruistic (done for free).”
It goes on to note that while the surrogate mother is put through the physical and psychological difficulties of pregnancy, society does not acknowledge any sort of bond between her and the unborn child. She has no legal rights regarding the child. And she is left on her own to deal with the psychological difficulties of giving up a baby she has carried for nine months. Surrogacy also poses serious health risks for the surrogate mother, including pre-eclampsia, complications from hormone treatments, and gestational diabetes.
Surrogacy exploits vulnerable women.
Surrogacy also exposes many women to personal and economic exploitation. Countries with some of the biggest international surrogacy markets include Georgia, Kenya, and Mexico—all nations with higher-than-average poverty rates.
WYA’s submission includes harrowing examples of the exploitation of surrogate mothers:
“In Mexico’s Tabasco region, for example, surrogacy has been legalized since 1997, but research shows it has resulted in the reproductive exploitation of impoverished rural women. Qualitative studies, including interviews with surrogates, lawyers, and health professionals, reveal strong economic interests, dangerous legal loopholes, and negative physical and emotional health consequences for the women involved.”
It furthers, “[t]he lack of clear regulation led to widespread abuses: clinics operated without licenses, unqualified doctors practiced, and some agencies kept surrogates in poor, even captive, conditions. In response to mounting scandals and international criticism, Tabasco reformed its civil code in January 2016, banning intermediaries and restricting surrogacy to Mexican heterosexual couples with certified fertility problems, thereby excluding foreigners, single individuals, and same-sex couples. The new law also required intended parents to provide health insurance for surrogates and proof of infertility, and imposed age limits on both intended mothers and surrogates.”
Another example occurred in Greece.
“In 2023, Greek authorities dismantled a network exploiting women as surrogate mothers and egg donors. The operation involved recruiting vulnerable foreign women, including those from Moldova, Ukraine, Georgia, Romania, and Bulgaria, offering them minimal compensation of 300 to 600 euros monthly. These women were subjected to unethical medical procedures, including repeated egg harvests, under coercive conditions.”
These are just a few examples of how the surrogacy industry takes advantage of women in desperate situations.
Surrogacy violates the child’s right to be known and cared for by his or her parents.
According to international law, children have a right to “be registered immediately after birth and shall have the right from birth to a name, the right to acquire a nationality and, as far as possible, the right to know and be cared for by his or her parents” (Convention on the Rights of the Child, art. 7). All too often, surrogacy robs the child of one or more of these rights.
As WYA noted in its submission, “[i]nternational surrogacy arrangements, in particular, often result in complex and ambiguous parentage, with children sometimes having a contracting mother, a gestational surrogate, and an egg donor.”
Surrogacy treats the child as a product to be purchased rather than a person who has the right to be conceived in love and know their parents and country of origin. It intentionally separates a child from one or both biological parents.
Surrogacy is often portrayed as a positive way for parents to grow their families. If we want to end the practice, we must change the conversation.
According to Mislav, the best next step is to achieve international recognition of the harms and human rights violations surrogacy entails, particularly for women and children. Other important goals include:
- Banning commercial surrogacy
- Criminalizing cross-border surrogacy tourism
- Supporting the vulnerable women often targeted to be surrogates
- Investing in women’s reproductive health programs, like FEMM, that address the hormonal disorders that often cause infertility
Next Steps
The UN Special Rapporteur’s report is a big step forward for the global conversation around surrogacy. It’s also an exciting advocacy opportunity for WYA.
“This submission to the UN Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women and Girls could mean a significant moment in not just our work, but the broader surrogacy debate,” Mislav says. “It represents one of the first opportunities to engage with an official UN mechanism on this issue in a very concrete manner.”
He continues, “[t]he report could serve as a catalyst for international dialogue and cooperation, laying the groundwork for a future international legal framework to prohibit surrogacy, especially commercial and transnational arrangements.”
Only time will tell what will come of the Special Rapporteur’s report. But in the meantime, WYA will keep advocating for policies that honor the dignity of everyone involved, from the parents to the child.
Read our full submission to the UN Special Rapporteur here.
