In an interview with the Russian National Line, Father Maxim Obukhov, head of the Orthodox Medical and Educational Center Life and a member of the Parental House alliance, said the following regarding the bill banning surrogacy for foreigners:
- The bill banning surrogacy for foreigners will be signed into law;
- Drafting of the bill was sabotaged by reproductive technology agencies;
- Surrogacy is related to in vitro fertilization, including all the accompanying ethical problems;
- Surrogacy is a billion-dollar business that is not subject to control;
- The business of surrogacy causes irreparable damage to the health of women who resort to modern reproductive technologies;
- The fate of children born through surrogacy is not monitored.
“A person cannot be an object of purchase and sale–neither a person, nor his or her organs and tissues should be a commodity for sale, and motherhood must not be a commercial service. Otherwise, we will dehumanize ourselves. A particularly cruel form of exploitation within reproductive technologies is surrogacy–women agreeing to carry someone else’s child in their womb for money. Such a woman gives birth to a child, begins to produce milk, the maternal instinct emerges in her, but the child is already intended for sale. It is also about moral and physiological stress,” says Father Maxim.
Speaking about the possibility of a complete ban on surrogacy and in vitro fertilization, the priest proposes a complete abolition of free in vitro fertilization and abortion: “It turns out that social security has money for abortion, but no money for the operation of a child’s heart defect! And after such an operation, the child can live his life to the full and make a significant contribution to society. Why are medical treatments for children funded from voluntary funds? Because insurance funds are wasting money on abortions and IVF!”