Pope Francis has called for a universal ban on surrogacy, calling the practice as a “grave violation of the dignity of the woman and the child”.
He said this during his New Year’s address to diplomats at the Vatican on Monday.
According to the Pope, “The path to peace calls for respect for life. This began with the life of the unborn child in the mother’s womb, which cannot be suppressed or turned into an object of trafficking.
“In this regard, I deem deplorable the practice of so-called surrogate motherhood, which represents a grave violation of the dignity of the woman and the child, based on the exploitation of situations of the mother’s material needs.
“A child is always a gift and never the basis of a commercial contract.
“Consequently, I express my hope for an effort by the international community to prohibit this practice universally.”
Surrogacy is an arrangement in which a woman, known as the surrogate, agrees to carry and give birth to a child on behalf of another person or couple
