Italy Extends Surrogacy Ban, Because Human Life is Not a Commodity

Italy has extended its prohibition against the highly controversial practice of surrogacy, in which embryos are implanted into the wombs of women who are not biologically related to the unborn child. Experts are welcoming the news as an important step in protecting the mother-child relationship and shielding underprivileged women from being preyed upon.

The measure, which passed the Italian Senate last week with widespread support in an 84-58 vote, expanded the country’s already existing prohibition against surrogacy by banning Italians from seeking the practice in other countries. Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni praised the passage of the law, calling it “a common sense rule against the commodification of the female body and children. Human life has no price and is not a commodity.”

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While some other European countries such as France, Germany, and Spain also have laws in place forbidding surrogacy, it is largely unregulated across the globe, including in the U.S. In the last two years, the surrogacy industry has exploded from $4 billion to $14 billion. In many cases, women living in poverty in countries like Ukraine agree to rent their wombs to wealthy couples seeking a baby.

However, studies show that the health consequences for both the mother and the child in a surrogate pregnancy can be devastating. An analysis noted that surrogate pregnancies “had higher rates of maternal complications, including gestational diabetes, hypertension, placenta previa, and c-section — and were three times more likely to result in preterm birth when compared with their own spontaneous pregnancies.”

In addition, the Center for Bioethics and Culture Network has highlighted numerous risks to women, including “Ovarian Hyper Stimulation Syndrome (OHSS), ovarian torsion, ovarian cysts, chronic pelvic pain, premature menopause, loss of fertility, reproductive cancers, blood clots, kidney disease, stroke, and, in some cases, death.”

For babies born via surrogacy, health risks include “preterm birth, stillbirth, low birth weight, fetal anomalies, and higher blood pressure.”

Observers have also pointed to the “studied and scientific realities of lifelong trauma resulting from the primal wounds of newborn separation. … Data show that when babies are separated from their physical mothers at birth, it brings longstanding negative consequences.”

Despite the documented dangers of surrogacy, there is no federal law prohibiting the practice in the U.S. Currently, 47 states “either permit and regulate surrogacy or do not expressly prohibit it.” The lack of consistent regulation regarding legal protections for surrogates and no limits on the amount of compensation they can receive “worries some bioethicists, who fear low-income women can be induced into surrogacy by sheer financial need.”

Mary Szoch, director of Family Research Council’s Center for Human Dignity, praised Italy’s expanded prohibition of surrogacy, arguing that the practice is extremely detrimental for mothers and babies and should be outlawed in the U.S.

“Surrogacy is a modern form of slavery,” she told The Washington Stand. “It preys upon poor women, and in doing so, destroys the most sacred of relationships — that between a mother and a child. When a woman is a surrogate, following the birth of her child, the baby is torn from her causing physical and emotional pain for both the mother and child.”

“No price can be put on the life of a child,” Szoch concluded. “No amount of money can heal the pain that is the result of separating a mother and her baby. Italy’s ban on surrogacy should be commended, and the U.S. — where there are no regulations on surrogacy or IVF — would do well to follow Italy’s example.”

LifeNews Note: Dan Hart writes for the Family Research Council. He is the senior editor of The Washington Stand.