Board Resolution

SURROGACY: A VIOLATION OF HUMAN DIGNITY

Motherhood: a precious gift, to respect and protect

The practice of surrogacy is of great concern for all FAFCE Members. This practice is spreading throughout the world, creating a slippery slope towards the right to a child, and having no respect for human dignity or fundamental ethical principles. For this reason, gathered in Fatima for our Spring Board Meeting, we, Presidents and Delegates of the FAFCE Board, strongly condemn any form of surrogacy, which instrumentalises women and children, whether accompanied by a financial transaction or not.

Motherhood is a priceless gift to humanity and should be respected and protected. No child should deliberately be deprived of his or her mother.

We believe that there is no reason to legitimate this practice, either on a legal, or on an ethical level. We also recognise that surrogacy is one of the consequences of a longer cultural process which separates procreation and sexuality, strongly undermining the dignity of human procreation.

We call on all Heads of States and Government to act in favour of the abolition of surrogacy by way of a specific international convention or an additional protocol to the International Convention of the rights of the Child.

We welcome the clear position adopted by the European Parliament, expressed in the Annual Report on Human Rights and Democracy in the World 2014 and the European Union’s policy on the matter, which condemned surrogacy, saying that it “shall be prohibited and treated as a matter of urgency in human rights instruments”.

We call on all the Members of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, to follow this path in favour of human dignity. Particularly, we call on the Members of the Social Affairs Committee to progress the procedure on Human rights and ethical issues related to surrogacy, in order to clearly condemn this practice.

We call on all the people of good will to express their opposition to surrogacy. We also call on all the organisations which oppose surrogacy to join forces and make their voice heard, facing the financial and ideological interests which are behind this practice.

Fatima, 13 April 2016