Renata Steffens
In new essay for the Anscombe Bioethics Centre, Dr Pia Matthews, senior lecturer at St Mary’s University, Twickenham, London says that surrogacy is “always an injustice.” In Ireland, surrogacy is not legal nor illegal, as there is no legislation for it.
In a press release, an Anscombe Bioethics Centre’s spokesperson says that “Surrogacy by its very nature makes the child an object of a commissioning agreement,” while Dr Matthews wrote in her essay that “the business of surrogacy is built on the commodification of women’s bodies.”
A section on surrogacy was added to the Law Commission of England and Wales and Scottish Law Commission in March 2023, intending to clarify the law, but Dr Matthews defends that the report would normalise surrogacy.
On the possibility of surrogacy becoming recognised as “just another reproductive technique,” Dr Matthews says that it could result in many celebrities “building their families through surrogacy thus giving the impression that surrogacy is something to emulate.”
In the Declaration Dignitas Infinita on Human Dignity Pope Francis says that the Church stands against the practice of Surrogacy, and argues that the child would become an object in that way of conception.
Dignitas Infinita also mentions the violation of women’s dignity during surrogacy. “In this practice, the woman is detached from the child growing in her and becomes a mere means subservient to the arbitrary gain or desire of others,” the document reads.
The document also mentions the Pope’s “hope for an effort by the international community to prohibit this practice universally.”