Italy has banned international surrogacy, prohibiting homosexuals from purchasing children abroad, in what is said to be the most sweeping law of its kind in the world.
The new law, backed Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, expands on Italy’s existing prohibition on domestic surrogacy, so that Italian citizens cannot use women in foreign countries to carry babies who will be legally transferred to them. Surrogacy clients and medical professionals who facilitate the practice abroad face jail time and considerable fines under the new law, which was approved by the Italian Senate 84 to 58 on Wednesday.
Homosexuals have been caught trying to purchase children through surrogacy to abuse them, such as in the case of a U.S. veterinarian arrested in March.
While Italy’s ban sharply distinguishes it from the U.S., where surrogacy is widely legal, its strong stance accords with that of much of Europe in general: Domestic surrogacy is banned in many European Union countries, including Spain, France, Germany, and Sweden.
Almost a decade ago, the European Parliament condemned surrogate motherhood as “undermin[ing] the human dignity of the woman since her body and its reproductive functions are used as a commodity.”
In April, the European Parliament went so far as to vote to classify “the exploitation of surrogate motherhood” as an act of “human trafficking.”
Economist and writer Jennifer Roback Morse has listed a slew of reasons to oppose surrogacy, including the abortion and eugenics often involved, the broken bond between the gestational mother and child and its effects on both, the medical risks for children conceived through in vitro fertilization (IVF), the exploitation of poor women, and especially “the creation of a market in human beings.”
Brothers of Italy MP Gianni Berrino pointed to one of these concerns as the bill was being debated, saying, “In the case of surrogate motherhood, the woman does not provide an organ, but gives birth to a child. The woman is thus reduced to an incubator, interrupting the relationship between mother and child.”
Even more disturbing is the possibility that pedophiles could purchase children using surrogacy, a concern highlighted by the U.K. media amid reports that a considerable number of older single men are buying children without background checks.
“I believe this is a barbaric practice that creates a market for children regardless of who makes use of it. Everyone should be penalized,” said Jacopo Coghe, spokesman for the Italian pro-family advocacy group Pro Vita & Famiglia, which backed the law.
As NPR noted, Italy has already banned the adoption of children by homosexual “couples” under Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, and commentators have observed that this new law “closes off the final remaining path” for homosexuals to obtain children. There are admitted difficulties in enforcing the law, such as the legal hurdles involved in accessing foreign medical records needed to prove Italian citizens’ participation in international surrogacy.
“Motherhood is absolutely unique, it absolutely cannot be surrogated and it is the foundation of our civilisation,” Lavinia Mennuni, a Brothers of Italy senator, said of the law, according to Euronews. “We want to uproot the phenomenon of surrogacy tourism.”