The Hague Conference – the intergovernmental organisation responsible for cooperation in terms of family law, is currently working on legislation intended to “focus on transnational surrogacy and facilitate the mutual recognition of direct lines of descent arising from surrogacy contracts”(cf. Gènéthique du 24 mars 2015).“An initial meeting of experts is scheduled for the first half of 2016”.
Within this scope, representatives of No Maternity traffic, members of the International Union for the Abolition of Surrogacy sent a written contribution to the Hague Conference on Friday, 4 September.
No Maternity Trafficpoints out that an international agreement regarding surrogacy “ even if it does not oblige States to legalise this practice in their own countries, would nevertheless presume acceptability and encourage de facto the circumvention of laws that do not accept this practice”. Surrogacy “raises serious ethical and legal problems”, “crucial questions which have to be considered head on before thinking of incorporating this at international level”.It involves “the unprecedented use of the female body as an instrument and the marketing of children, who are the subject of such agreements”. Furthermore, it is “incompatible with current international law”.
No Maternity Traffictherefore calls for a ban on surrogacy at international level in the same way as the sale of children is prohibited, “accompanied by criminal sanctions and the refusal to recognise the effects of surrogacy abroad, especially with regard to direct lines of descent”. With regard to specific cases where children are conceived through the illegal practice of surrogacy, “Each State is responsible for introducing laws, focusing on the interests of the child without encouraging this practice”.
No Maternity Traffic (12/09/2015)