We as Friends of Lazarus (Amici di Lazzaro odv) have long argued that surrogacy regulations in various nations are gravely unjust, leaving women and children exposed to risks of exploitation and abuse.
We are therefore favorably impressed by two legislative proposals presented in the US (by Representative Scott Perry, whose party we do not know), which represent a first attempt to introduce greater protections in a sector characterized by poor regulation.
The first proposal, the “Protecting Kids from Creeps Act”, would prohibit convicted sex offenders from accessing surrogacy or obtaining parental rights through assisted reproduction, also providing for sanctions for agencies that facilitate such agreements. The very fact that it is necessary to intervene with a specific law shows how much legislation has struggled to keep pace with the development of assisted reproduction techniques.
The second proposal, the “Preventing International Surrogacy Exploitation Act”, would prevent foreign citizens from obtaining children through surrogacy agreements concluded in the United States. The goal is to limit an international market that raises numerous legal and ethical issues, from the citizenship of children to conflicts between legal systems, to the protection of the women involved.
The two initiatives represent an important signal: the awareness is growing that the current system, fragmented among different national legislations, does not guarantee adequate protection for the most vulnerable individuals, especially in cases of international surrogacy, which involve different legal systems, for example when a woman from one country carries a pregnancy on behalf of intended parents residing in another.
Italy is, rightly, among the countries that have adopted one of the strictest regulations in this matter. With the recent reform, in fact, the use of surrogacy carried out abroad by Italian citizens is also punishable. This is, in fact, an almost total ban for Italian citizens, aimed at preventing the use of more permissive legal systems from circumventing national legislation.
Friends of Lazarus therefore hopes that in the United States too, a discipline equally effective in combating the surrogacy market can be achieved. Although these legislative proposals are less comprehensive than Italian legislation, they nevertheless represent a step in the right direction: any intervention that introduces limits, controls, and protections contributes to reducing the risks of exploitation of women and putting the protection of children at the center, who should be the primary recipients of any assisted reproduction policy.
Naturally, there will be the usual whining from those who will cry out against the “reproductive freedom,” “denied civil rights,” the umpteenth invasion of the State into private life, or even the return of the “Middle Ages.” One can also expect the usual reference to the supposed “right to have a child” and the inevitable accusations of discrimination against those who wish to resort to surrogacy. This is the script that repeats every time an attempt is made to introduce a limit in a market that moves enormous economic interests. Curiously, however, the freedom invoked is always that of adults who desire a child, never that of women who may suffer economic pressure, nor that of children, who cannot choose to be conceived and born within a commercial contract. A truly civilized society should distinguish between the desires of adults and the rights of the weakest: no one has a right to obtain a child at any cost.
If protecting the dignity of women and the best interests of the child means placing limits on a market that treats human life as a purchasable service, then welcome those limits that someone, predictably, will continue to call “restrictions on freedom.”
Paolo Botti
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