By editor - 20 December, 2015
The Iona Institute has welcomed the European Parliament’s rejection of surrogacy in all its forms, commercial and non-commercial.
In a statement on Friday, David Quinn of the Iona Institute said, “This vote is very welcome. Surrogacy, whether commercial or not, unavoidably turns children into commodities. It also splits motherhood into two women, the birth mother and the genetic mother.”
Referring to next year’s public consultation in Ireland on surrogacy, Mr Quinn said, “The Department of Health and the Oireachtas should take note of this vote by the European Parliament and also of the fact that many European countries ban surrogacy in all its form.”
He added, “At present our Government has flagged that it will only ban commercial surrogacy.”
The European Parliament backed a new human rights report which unambiguously rejects commercial and non-commercial surrogacy.
The text of the motion on the report stated that the parliament “condemns the practice of surrogacy, which undermines the human dignity of the woman since her body and its reproductive functions are used as a commodity; considers that the practice of gestational surrogacy which involves reproductive exploitation and use of the human body for financial or other gain, in particular in the case of vulnerable women in developing countries, shall be prohibited and treated as a matter of urgency in human rights instruments.”
The report is titled the ‘Annual Report on Human Rights and Democracy in the World 2014 and the European Union’s Policy on the Matter.’
