Spain’s Supreme Court has ruled that surrogate motherhood involves the exploitation of women and is damaging to the dignity and rights of the children conceived. The judgement was issued on Dec. 9, stating that a decision from a foreign legal body, in this case Bexar County, Texas, validating a surrogacy contract and attributing parental rights to contractual parents, is “contrary to public order”.
Spain’s Supreme Court rules surrogacy contracts, including those established abroad, will not be recognized in Spain.
“Surrogacy violates the moral well-being of the pregnant woman and the child, who are treated as things up for sale, deprived of the dignity proper to the human… pic.twitter.com/LobgsdiBHZ
— AF Post (@AFpost) December 17, 2024
The court ruling rests on the Spanish legal system’s “fundamental rights and constitutional principles”, which include respect for the dignity and rights of both the pregnant woman and the child.
According to the Supreme Court, surrogate motherhood treats both the woman and the child as commodities that can be traded, thus undermining their inherent human dignity. The practice also infringes upon the minor’s right to their own biological origins, subjecting the woman to potentially aggressive hormonal treatments to induce pregnancy.
The court also emphasized that surrogate contracts, such as the one sanctioned by the American court, involve significant monetary transactions, some of which proceeds to the surrogate mother. The payment thus subverts genuine consent from the surrogate mother to give up the child she is bearing.
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