10/05/2023
Published in
El Día, El Diario Montañés and Diario de Navarra
Gerardo Castillo Ceballos
School of Education and Psychology of the University of Navarra
Today, some present the issue of "surrogacy" as a progressive advance, when in reality it is a step backwards in subject of human rights based on ethical relativism. Treated as an instrument, it does violence to the dignity of women.
Surrogate motherhood consists in the gestation, agreed in a contract, by a woman who Withdrawal for money to the maternal filiation and consents that the filiation of the child is determined in favor of the contracting party. The situation is known in different ways: surrogacy or surrogate motherhood, surrogate motherhood or surrogate motherhood. This surrogacy contract is prohibited in Spain. A ruling of the Supreme Court in 2022 states that "surrogacy contracts violate the fundamental rights of both the surrogate mother and the surrogate child, and are therefore manifestly contrary to our public order".
Surrogacy cannot be a legal alternative for having offspring. It is a internship that opens the door to the exploitation of women, enriches the agencies or intermediaries who look for surrogate mothers willing to rent their wombs for money, and encourages situations comparable to slavery. Surrogacy is, above all, a very lucrative business at the expense of very vulnerable women. The price of a surrogacy contract varies greatly depending on the country in the world where the process is carried out: it can range from 40,000 euros to 200,000 euros. An estimated 20,000 children are born each year through this method procedure.
Nuria González, a specialist in Bioethics, in her book "Vientres de alquiler" (Wombs for Rent) describes this dehumanized business in detail. The prologue is by Alicia Miralles, spokesperson for the platform "No somos Vasijas" (We are not vessels). Alicia affirms that surrogate motherhood is a euphemism with which they try to sweeten the sad reality of women who are bought as surrogate wombs.
The association Spanish Bioethics Association (AEBI), considers surrogacy as a new form of exploitation of women, contrary to their dignity, by using the female body, and therefore her person, as a negotiable object. But the most striking thing is that it is also condemned by feminist groups. They argue that surrogacy is a flagrant attack on women's rights and, moreover, implies, in the vast majority of cases, that it is the poorest women who end up giving birth to the children of the richest.
The arguments of the Family Forum against surrogacy are also very solid: the woman's body becomes an object; the desire to be parents is commodified; there are emotional problems for the mother who, after nine months of gestation, has to give up the child; the child becomes an object, since it has a price.
The Episcopal Commission for the Laity, Family and Life issued an grade on April 21 of the current year in which it sets out its position on "surrogate motherhood". Among the conclusions of this document, the bishops point out that "surrogacy is a new form of exploitation of women, contrary to the dignity of the human person, since it uses the female body and her whole person, reducing her to being a human incubator".
The most painful thing is that the pregnant woman is used as if she were a factory that manufactures babies for others. Neither the payers nor the intermediaries care about the woman's status or the bond that is generated as a mother during the nine months that the baby is in her womb. They are treated this way because the companies take advantage of the status need of many women.
With surrogacy, eugenics is promoted. Since the baby is treated as a mere commodity, buyers can choose the product they like best. This is what companies trading in surrogacy are doing. For example, the British company Baby Bloom, which sells the selection of the perfect child as the highlight of its product.