Commercial surrogacy is a human rights disaster
by Michael Cook, Mercator:
The American state of Michigan recently legalised commercial surrogacy. “This is the most pro-family thing that the Legislature has done,” said Governor Gretchen Whitmer as she signed the legislation into law.
Every American state has its own laws on surrogacy; Michigan has now joined the majority of states that permit some form of commercial surrogacy. The only states currently banning it are Nebraska and Louisiana.
The United States has become a leader in commercialising human life. But it’s an outlier. Elsewhere in the world, only a handful of countries, including paragons of human rights like Russia and Iran, permit commercial surrogacy.
However, there are moves to follow Iran’s lead in Ireland, the United Kingdom and Australia. Other countries can be expected to explore this option.
In fact, over the next couple of decades, surrogacy is expected to explode. One market research agency has predicted that the global demand for surrogacy will rise from US$14 billion in 2022 to $129 billion in 2032 – almost a ten-fold increase.
Will this be an ethical business? Does surrogacy, especially commercial surrogacy, foster human dignity? Is it the “most pro-family thing”?
The media often frames opposition to surrogacy as a “religious” issue. After all, Pope Francis recently denounced it: ““I consider despicable the practice of so-called surrogate motherhood, which represents a grave violation of the dignity of the woman and the child.”
Strong words, but feminists are even more outspoken. Feminist icon Gloria Steinem fiercely opposed the legalisation of commercial surrogacy in New York in 2019: “women in economic need become commercialized vessels for rent, and the fetuses they carry become the property of others”.
And Julie Bindel, a well-known lesbian journalist in the UK, has said that “the surrogacy industry, in its entirety, is nothing but a reproductive brothel”.
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