During his New Year’s address to diplomats at the Vatican, Pope Francis urged for a worldwide ban on surrogacy, labelling the act of a woman carrying another individual’s child as “deplorable.”

In his speech emphasising the need to end conflicts worldwide, the 87-year-old head of the Catholic Church highlighted the importance of respecting life, particularly that of the unborn child in a mother’s womb.

He stressed the need to prevent turning this life into a commodity, stating that the practice of surrogate motherhood was a “grave violation of the dignity of the woman and the child,” exploiting mothers’ vulnerable situations.

Stressing that a child is always a gift and never a subject of a financial contract, he expressed his hope for an international effort to universally outlaw this practice.

He said, “A child is always a gift and never the basis of a commercial contract. Consequently, I express my hope for an effort by the international community to prohibit this practice universally.”

The pope had previously condemned surrogacy as an “inhuman” practice in June 2022. While altruistic surrogacy is legal in countries like Belgium, the Netherlands, the UK, Canada, Brazil, and Colombia, commercial surrogacy is permitted in select US states.

Credit: Leadership