The Vatican said that it wants to see surrogacy banned worldwide as a “universal crime.”
The Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith’s new Declaration “Dignitas infinita” or Infinite Dignity commemorates the 75th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
The document says that surrogacy is a practice that “represents a grave violation of the dignity of the woman and the child.”
“A child is always a gift and never the basis of a commercial contract,” the document says. “Every human life, beginning with that of the unborn child in its mother’s womb, cannot be suppressed, nor become an object of commodity.”
“In this regard, I consider deplorable the practice of so-called surrogate motherhood, which seriously damages the dignity of the woman and the child.
“It is based on the exploitation of a mother’s situation of material need.
“A child is always a gift and never the object of a contract.
I therefore call for a commitment by the international community to ban this practice universally,” the document says.
Italy’s conservative government has proposed a bill to outlaw surrogacy entirely. This would lead to prosecution for gay couples who bring children born through surrogacy back to Italy.
Apart from surrogacy, the document also criticizes gender theory, discrimination and violence against women, coercive abortion to satisfy the “selfishness of males,” and the practice of polygamy.
