SURROGACY Archives - Associazione Aura

CIAMS petition: reject Reject Opinion No. 86 of the Belgian Advisory Committee on Bioethics

CIAMS petition: reject Opinion No. 86 of the Belgian Advisory Committee on Bioethics

Feminist organisations in Belgium are taking a stand against Opinion n. 86 of the Belgian Advisory Committee on Bioethics, which seeks to bringin a legal framework for surrogate motherhood.

According to the organisations signing and supporting CIAMS petition, Opinion n. 86 takes no account of women’s and children’s rights and further commodifies women’s bodies and children’s lives. Furthermore, it was solely informed by stakeholders who take a favourable approach to legalising surrogacy.

For this reason, the coalition of Belgium-based organisations demand that the Committee take into account:

That any pregnancy involves risks and complications
That surrogate pregnancies, due to the technology used, are riskier than natural pregnancies
That women engaging in surrogacy hope for an improvement of their economic situation, and that the latter is significantly inferior to that of clients commissioning the baby born out of surrogacy
That all surrogacy contracts require surrogate mothers to relinquish their fundamental rights for the entire duration of their pregnancy
That the best interests of the child do not involve being bought or sold, as demonstrated by the recent testimonies of Olivia Maurel, born through surrogacy
That international conventions ratified by Belgium demonstrate that surrogacy falls under the categories of child trafficking and human trafficking.

Consequently, the signatories call for Opinion n.86 to be considered null and for public opinion to be provided with genuine information about surrogacy and the human rights violations’ resulting from surrogacy.

European Parliament – surrogacy for the purpose of reproductive exploitation as part of the crime of human trafficking

European Parliament - surrogacy for the purpose of reproductive exploitation as part of the crime of human trafficking

In October 2023, the Committee on Women’s Rights and Civil Liberties (LIBE) adopted the European Parliament’s draft position on the revision of the anti-trafficking rules. The text focuses on prevention, strengthening protection and support for victims, and a more effective fight against the crime of trafficking in human beings.

The adopted text addresses surrogacy for the purpose of reproductive exploitation in the context of trafficking and states that if a woman is recruited to become a surrogate mother or threatened to become one for the purpose of reproductive exploitation, she will be considered a victim of trafficking while traffickers will be prosecuted.

Surrogacy involves the objectification of the woman, commodification of the newborn, human trafficking and violation of the human dignity of the woman exploited as a “surrogate mother” and the child, thus undermining the rights of the woman and the child. Therefore, the Aura Association opposes this practice and welcomes the text criminalising reproductive exploitation.

However, we are saddened that the text does not ban surrogacy in general, but only criminalizes surrogacy in the context of trafficking. Moreover, only surrogacy carried out through the use of force, threat or coercion would fall under the Directive.

As a women’s rights organization, we know that many crimes against women are not committed through the use of force or threat, and that direct, physical violence is not the only means that structures violence against women.