Church in Argentina applauds 'exemplary statement' against surrogacy

Buenos Aires, Argentina, November 6, 2024 / 2:15 PM

The No to Human Trafficking team of the Argentine Bishops’ National Commission for Justice and Peace has issued a statement welcoming the country’s Supreme Court ruling in a surrogacy case.

The court rejected the request of a “married” male couple who had contracted with a woman for a child and wanted to be registered as parents rather than biological mothers, which the bishops’ commission called an “unprecedented exemplary ruling” in a statement. ”

The statement noted that “the mother is the one who gives birth, regardless of the subjective self-representations and private desires of third parties.”

Furthermore, “taking into account all rights involved” regarding surrogacy, and to “limit any potential regulation so as not to affect the most vulnerable, that is, poor women and children who are treated as objects of desire” , the Supreme Court urged the country’s legislature to correct “the lack of regulation” on this subject.

It is the first time that the Argentine Supreme Court has ruled in a surrogacy case.

The ruling dismissed a legal action by a homosexual “married couple” who turned to a woman to have a child and then applied to judges for a new birth certificate challenging the woman as a parent, allowing them to be considered the parents of the newborn would be considered. .

The child was thus registered as the son of the woman who gave birth and of one of the contracting spouses, who had given prior consent.

The ruling makes it clear that there is no “legal vacuum” in this matter in Argentina and that surrogacy or so-called “rent-a-womb” is a practice that is against the law.

For the No to Human Trafficking team, which is committed to ‘raising awareness and making visible the nature and dehumanizing consequences of this new form of human trafficking for the purpose of reproductive exploitation and child trafficking’, it is ‘timely and necessary to issue a statement, which will be a light and educational guide to our community regarding this harmful and inhumane form of human trafficking.”

The topic was also discussed by Nicolás Lafferriere, PhD in Law, in his program “Por la Vida” (“For Life”) on Radio María, who pointed out that the persons concerned had not requested prior legal consent for the surrogacy and that, according to this court ruling, “people cannot enter into contracts to change the rules of descent; that is, how maternal, paternal, and filial bonds are formed.”

On the other hand, despite recognizing the “procreative will,” Laferriere pointed out that it has a limit and that limit, established by law, is surrogacy or uterine renting.

“This ruling ends a series of court rulings across the country that have generally been very favorable to surrogacy, but fall outside the text of the law. So the court is somehow aware of this, and here it puts an end, it sets a limit,” he emphasized.

“If the law is clear, the judge cannot put his own criteria above the criteria of the law, and somehow he puts a limit on all those rulings that have legitimized surrogacy in our country in recent years,” he said. the judge. said lawyer.

The Catholic Church and surrogacy

The document Dignitas Infinitapublished in April by the Vatican’s Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith with the approval of Pope Francis, lists thirteen serious violations of human dignity.

Among them, No. 48 states that “the Church also takes a stand against the practice of surrogacy, which turns the immensely worthy child into a mere object.”

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“First and foremost, the practice of surrogacy violates the dignity of the child” and “the dignity of the woman, whether she is forced to do so or chooses to freely submit to it,” the document said.

“In this practice, the woman becomes detached from the child growing within her and becomes merely a tool subservient to the arbitrary gain or desire of others,” the dicastery explains.

This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.

Julieta Villar holds a degree in Social Communication from the National University of La Matanza (Argentina). She started her professional career as an editor at the Argentine Catholic Information Agency (AICA). She has worked on graphic press media and communications tasks at social organizations. Since October 2022, she has been part of the ACI Prensa team as a correspondent for Argentina, Bolivia, Chile and Uruguay.