ROME: Pope Francis on Monday called for the practice of surrogate motherhood to be banned worldwide, Italian news agency (ANSA) reported.
“The path to peace demands respect for life, for every human life, starting with that of the unborn child in its mother’s womb, which cannot be suppressed, nor become an object of commodification,” he said during a New Year audience with the members of the Diplomatic Corps accredited to the Holy See.
“I consider the practice of so-called surrogate motherhood, which seriously damages the dignity of the woman and the child, to be deplorable,” he continued, adding that it is based on the exploitation of a situation of material need of the mother.
“A child is always a gift and never the object of a contract,” he said.
Surrogacy is a hot topic in Italy, where Premier Giorgia Meloni’s Brothers of Italy party has presented a bill to make surrogacy, which is illegal in Italy but has been used by many gay couples to become parents with surrogate mothers abroad, a “universal crime”.
This means that it would be punishable by law even if committed abroad, but only for Italian citizens. – BERNAMA-ANSA
