Pope Francis on Monday called for a global ban on surrogacy, saying the practice of a woman carrying another person’s child was “deplorable.”
According to Cambridge Dictionary, surrogacy is the action of a woman having a baby for another woman who is unable to do so herself.
In his New Year’s address to diplomats at the Vatican, the 87-year-old pontiff said it was a “grave violation of the dignity of the woman and the child”.
In a speech dominated by calls for an end to conflicts around the world, the head of the worldwide Catholic Church said, “The path to peace calls for respect for life.”
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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,” he said.
“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.”
AFP reports that in June 2022, the Pope condemned surrogacy as an “inhuman” practice.
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