The Holy See has hosted a panel at the United Nations at which advocates highlighted the “exploitation and commodification” inherent in the surrogacy industry and stressed the need to regulate and eventually abolish surrogacy around the world. Source: CNA.
The participants “highlighted the need for a universal ban to protect against exploitation and commodification”, the Permanent Mission of the Holy See to the United Nations said, with the panellists calling for “increased awareness and concrete steps at the UN level to abolish surrogacy and uphold human dignity”.
The event, titled “At What Price? Towards the Abolition of Surrogacy: Preventing the Exploitation and Commodification of Women and Children,” was held at the Palais des Nations at the UN’s Geneva headquarters.
Pope Francis earlier this year called surrogacy “deplorable” and called for a global ban on the exploitative practice of “so-called surrogate motherhood” in a speech to all of the world’s ambassadors.
“The path to peace calls for respect for life, for every human life, starting with the life of the unborn child in the mother’s womb, which cannot be suppressed or turned into an object of trafficking,” the Pope said in January.
A press release from the Holy See mission said the panel this week brought together “a wide range of participants” to discuss surrogacy, including a woman born through surrogacy who has since become a child rights activist, as well as an Italian government minister and other advocates.
It was moderated by Gabriella Gambino, the undersecretary of the Dicastery for Laity, Family, and Life.
Olivia Maurel, who was born in America through surrogacy and raised in France, told participants at the panel of the “severe emotional and psychological toll it took on her life”.
She argued that surrogacy “commodifies children and exploits women, violating international laws and children’s rights,” the release said.
Ms Gambino, meanwhile, argued that surrogacy has resulted in “procreative tourism” around the globe.
FULL STORY
Holy See convenes UN panel urging global abolition of surrogacy (By Daniel Payne, CNA)
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