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Vatican endorses bid to ban surrogacy as 㽶Ƶֱcommercialization of life㽶Ƶֱ

Proponents of ban say practice violates rights of the child and surrogate mother
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Conference coordinator Bernard Garcia and Italian Minister for birth, family and equal opportunities, Eugenia Roccella right, attend a two-day conference promoting an international treaty to outlaw surrogacy at the LUMSA Vatican-affiliated university, in Rome, Friday, April 5, 2024. The conference is promoting the international treaty to outlaw surrogacy based on the argument that the practice violates U.N. conventions protecting the rights of the child and surrogate mother. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

An international campaign to ban surrogacy received a strong endorsement Friday from the Vatican, with a top official calling for a broad-based alliance to stop the 㽶Ƶֱcommercialization of life㽶Ƶֱ catering to wealthy would-be parents.

A Vatican-affiliated university hosted a two-day conference promoting an international treaty to outlaw surrogacy, based on the campaigners㽶Ƶֱ argument that the practice violates U.N. conventions protecting the rights of the child and surrogate mother.

At issue is whether there is a fundamental right to have a child, at any cost, or whether the rights of children trump the desires of potential parents.

The conference, which also drew U.N. human rights representatives and experts, marked an acceleration of a campaign that has found some support in parts of the developing world and western Europe. At the same time, Canada and the United States are known for highly regulated arrangements that draw heterosexual and homosexual couples alike from around the world, while other countries allow surrogacy with fewer rules.

Pope Francis in January called for an , calling it a despicable violation of human dignity that exploits the surrogate mother㽶Ƶֱs financial need. On Thursday, Francis met privately with one of the proponents calling for a universal ban on surrogacy, Olivia Maurel, a 33-year-old mother of three.

Maurel was born in the U.S. in 1991 via surrogacy and attributes a lifetime of mental health issues to the 㽶Ƶֱtrauma of abandonment㽶Ƶֱ she says she experienced at birth. She says she was separated from her biological mother and given to parents who had contracted with an agency in Kentucky after experiencing infertility problems when they tried to have children in their late 40s.

Maurel says she doesn㽶Ƶֱt blame her parents and she acknowledges there are 㽶Ƶֱmany happy stories㽶Ƶֱ of families who use surrogate mothers. But she says that doesn㽶Ƶֱt make the practice ethical or right, even with regulations, since she said she was made to sacrifice 㽶Ƶֱfor the desire of adults to have a child.㽶Ƶֱ

㽶ƵֱThere is no right to have a child,㽶Ƶֱ Maurel told the conference at the LUMSA university. 㽶ƵֱBut children do have rights, and we can say surrogacy violates many of these rights.㽶Ƶֱ

Monsignor Miloslaw Wachowski, undersecretary for relations with states in the Vatican secretariat of state, concurred, saying the practice reduces human procreation to a concept of 㽶Ƶֱindividual will㽶Ƶֱ and desire, where the powerful and wealthy prevail.

㽶ƵֱParents find themselves in the role of being providers of genetic material, while the embryo appears more and more like an object: something to produce 㽶Ƶֱ not someone, but something,㽶Ƶֱ he said.

He called for the campaign to ban the practice not to remain in the sphere of the Catholic Church or even faith-based groups, but to transcend traditional ideological and political boundaries.

㽶ƵֱWe shouldn㽶Ƶֱt close ourselves among those who think exactly the same way,㽶Ƶֱ he said. 㽶ƵֱRather, we should open up to pragmatic alliances to realize a common goal.㽶Ƶֱ

The Vatican㽶Ƶֱs overall position, which is expected to be crystalized in a position paper Monday on human dignity, stems from its belief that human life begins at conception and must be given the consequent respect and dignity from that moment on. The Vatican also holds that human life should be created through intercourse between husband and wife, not in a petri dish, and that surrogacy takes in vitro fertilization a step further by 㽶Ƶֱcommercializing㽶Ƶֱ the resulting embryo.

As the conference was getting underway, Italy㽶Ƶֱs main gay family advocacy group, Rainbow Families, sponsored a pro-surrogacy rally to counter proposals by Italy㽶Ƶֱs hard-right-led government to to try to use surrogates abroad, even in countries where the practice is legal.

㽶ƵֱWe are families, not crimes,㽶Ƶֱ said banners held by some of the 200 or so participants, many of them gay couples who traveled abroad to have children via surrogate.

A 2004 law already banned surrogacy within Italy. The proposed law would make it illegal in Italy for citizens to engage a surrogate mother in another country, with prison terms of up to three years and fines of up to 1 million euros ($1.15 million) for convictions.

In the U.S., Resolve, the National Infertility Association, which advocates for people experiencing infertility problems, has criticized any calls for a universal ban on surrogacy as harmful and hurtful to the many people experiencing the 㽶Ƶֱdisease of infertility.㽶Ƶֱ

㽶ƵֱResolve believes that everyone deserves the right to build a family and should have access to all family building options,㽶Ƶֱ Betsy Campbell, Resolve㽶Ƶֱs chief engagement officer, said in a telephone interview. 㽶ƵֱSurrogacy, and specifically gestational carrier surrogacy, is an option.㽶Ƶֱ

She said the U.S. regulations, which include separate legal representation for surrogate and the intended parents, and mental health and other evaluations, safeguard all parties in the process.

㽶ƵֱMost people do not expect to have infertility or to need medical assistance to build their families,㽶Ƶֱ she said. 㽶ƵֱSo when non-medical people speak about IVF and surrogacy in a negative way, it can be very discouraging and make an already challenging journey all the more challenging.㽶Ƶֱ

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