Europe Rejects Legalization of Surrogacy to Protect Children’s Rights

By Marianna Orlandi, Ph.D
Center for Family & Human Rights


STRASBOURG, October 14 (C-Fam) Last Tuesday, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) rejected an attempt to legalize surrogacy throughout Europe.

By a narrow majority, the representatives of the 47 Member States rejected a recommendation aimed at regulating the selling of female gametes and renting of women’s wombs.

This was the third attempt to normalize surrogacy by Belgian Senator Petra de Sutter. Advocates tried to distinguish between what they called “altruistic” vs. “for-profit” surrogacy, only condemning the latter.

According to De Sutter, a clear and absolute ban of the practice, like the one that a bi-partisan coalition of European representatives tried to include in the final text, would violate children’s rights. Assuming that legal prohibitions would still fail to prevent surrogacy, De Sutter discussed a need to offer legal protections to children born of the practice. In the face of a “fait accompli,” which most European countries still consider a crime, De Sutter argued that the law shall not condemn, but regulate.

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