Church in Argentina hails ‘exemplary ruling’ against surrogacy

Buenos Aires, Argentina, Nov 6, 2024 / 14:15 pm

The “No to Trafficking” Team of the Argentine bishops’ National Commission for Justice and Peace has issued a statement hailing the country’s Supreme Court ruling in a case involving surrogate motherhood.

The court rejected the request of a “married” male couple who had contracted with a woman for a child and wanted to be registered as the parents instead of the birth mother, which the bishops’ commission called in a statement an “unprecedented exemplary ruling.”

The statement noted that “the mother is the one who gives birth, regardless of the subjective self-representations and private wishes of third parties.”

Furthermore, “taking into account all the rights that are involved” in relation to surrogacy, and in order to “limit any potential regulation to not affect the most vulnerable, that is, poor women and children processed as objects of desire,” the Supreme Court urged the nation’s Legislature to “correct the lack of regulation” on the subject.

This is the first time the Argentine Supreme Court has ruled on a case involving surrogacy.

The ruling rejected a legal action by a homosexual “married couple” who turned to a woman to bear a child and then requested from the judges a new birth certificate that challenged the woman as the parent so that they would be considered the parents of the newborn.

Thus the child was registered as the son of the woman who gave birth and of one of the contracting couple, who had given his prior consent.

The ruling makes it clear that in this matter there is no “legal vacuum” in Argentina and that surrogate motherhood or so-called “rent-a-womb” is a practice contrary to the law.

For the No to Trafficking Team, which is committed to “raising awareness and making visible the nature and dehumanizing effects of this new form of trafficking for the purpose of reproductive exploitation and child trafficking,” it is “timely and necessary to issue a statement, which will be a light and educational guide for our community regarding this harmful and inhumane form of human trafficking.”

The topic was also addressed by Nicolás Lafferriere, who holds a doctorate in legal sciences, on his program “Por la Vida” (“For Life”) on Radio María, who pointed out that the persons involved did not ask for prior legal authorization for the surrogacy and that, according to this court ruling, “people cannot make contracts to change the rules of filiation; that is, how maternal, paternal, and filial ties are established.”

On the other hand, despite recognizing the “procreative will,” Laferriere pointed out that this has a limit and that limit, set by law, is surrogacy or rent-a-womb.

“This ruling puts an end to a series of court rulings that have occurred throughout the country, generally very favorable to surrogacy but outside the text of the law. So the court, in some way, is aware of this, and here it sets a stop, sets a limit,” he pointed out.

“The judge, when the law is clear, cannot put his own criteria above the criteria of the law, and in some way it puts a limit on all those rulings that over the last few years have been legitimizing surrogacy in our country,” the lawyer said.

The Catholic Church and surrogacy

The document Dignitas Infinita, published in April by the Vatican’s Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith with the approval of Pope Francis, lists 13 serious violations of human dignity.

Among them, it states in No. 48 that “the Church also takes a stand against the practice of surrogacy, through which the immensely worthy child becomes a mere object.” 

“First and foremost, the practice of surrogacy violates the dignity of the child” and “the dignity of the woman, whether she is coerced into it or chooses to subject herself to it freely,“ the document states.

“In this practice, the woman is detached from the child growing in her and becomes a mere means subservient to the arbitrary gain or desire of others,” the dicastery explains.

This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.