Pope Francis on Monday called for a universal ban on the “despicable” practice of surrogacy, denouncing the “commercialization” of pregnancy in an annual address listing threats to world peace and human dignity.
In a foreign policy speech delivered to ambassadors accredited to the Holy See, Francis lamented that 2024 began at a moment in history when peace is “increasingly threatened, weakened and partly lost.”
Citing the Russian war in Ukraine, the conflict between Israel and Hamas, migration, climate crises and the “immoral” production of nuclear and conventional weapons, Pope Francis drew up a long list of ills that afflict humanity and of increasing violations of international humanitarian law.
But Francis also listed smaller-scale issues that he said pose threats to peace and human dignity, including surrogacy. The pope said the life of the unborn child must be protected and not “suppressed or transformed into an object of trafficking.”
“I consider the practice of surrogacy to be contemptible, which represents a serious violation of the dignity of women and children, based on the exploitation of situations of material need of the mother,” he said. supported.
Stating that a child is a gift and “never the basis of a commercial contract,” he called for a global ban on surrogacy “to prohibit the practice universally.”
Francis has previously voiced the Catholic Church’s opposition to what he called “the womb for hire,” and some European countries ban it, including Spain and Italy. However, at the same time, the Vatican’s doctrinal office has made it clear that homosexual parents who resort to surrogacy can have their children baptized.