OPINION – Legalising surrogacy in Europe: a basic right any parent should have access to
It is true that in most European Nations, Surrogacy is a complex and controversial subject. But what is surrogacy ? The European Union has not set a universal definition of surrogacy, nor law, resulting in it varying by country. For me, surrogacy is the act of carrying and giving birth to a child for someone else, it can be altruistic, where no money is spent or a minimum, or commercial where the birth mother puts a fee.
Surrogacy is done through various ways, and there are multiple types of surrogacies. I’ve already listed the types of surrogacies depending on the type of payments. But avoiding technicality seems smarter. Essentially, to perform a surrogacy, you’d either contact a birth mother independently which would be someone you’d probably already know, or go through an agency which would help you ‘streamline’ the process.
Secondly, surrogacy is often performed in two main ways. In traditional surrogacy, the surrogate’s own egg is used and pregnancy is typically achieved through insemination with sperm from an intended parent or a donor, making the surrogate genetically related to the child.
In gestational surrogacy, an embryo created through IVF using eggs and sperm from the intended parents or donors is transferred to the surrogate’s uterus; resulting in no genetic links to the child.
Now, of course there are obvious issues and downsides to those methods, regarding the agency “method”, the birth mother might be exploited, or the whole system could be a scam. Regarding the traditional method, maybe the surrogate isn’t fully consenting, or maybe she’ll want the child after.
This requires us to make two things clear.
The first is that giving birth to a child does not automatically make you legitimate to the child, in the sense that imagine we have two individuals, one has raised their child their whole life and has contributed to its upbringing, and the other claims that she should have the child, solely because they have given birth to it, and it’s their ‘right’. Who is the legitimate parent in this case?
To come back to the question of surrogacy, I think the surrogate carrying the child, if done in a traditional and altruistic method, should be able to dispute for the child’s custody after a delay, or if the child has been abused or isn’t living in correct conditions. However, if the parents have always raised the children, even after let’s say 4 years, then I think the birthmother should not be able to dispute custody. Nevertheless, if the surrogacy was performed in a gestational way with a contract, then I think the birthmother should not be able to dispute the child. And if there is abuse in the family, then the child should be handled by CPS and not ‘necessarily’ be given back to the birthmother. Of course, I am not advocating for a full voiding of the birthmother’s role, but I don’t think she should be considered a parent.
Finally, most anti-surrogacy groups often use the rhetoric of women being abused, and in sex trafficking / “surrogacy” trafficking rings to advocate against the right to surrogacy. But banning surrogacy isn’t going to make this horrible market disappear. It’s just going to go even more downhill, and hidden, making investigation even harder.Besides, a 2025 analysis by La Strada International found that only 11 trafficking cases involving the exploitation of surrogacy have been documented across Europe, compared. To add, Eurojust warns that cross-border surrogacy can lead to trafficking/sale of children, however that’s an argument for harmonised regulation and enforcement, not banning.
To return to the original statement, surrogacy should be legalized and a right for any families, no matter the composition or health. Surrogacy, is at its core, an alternate way of having a child. If it is legalized the right way, with clear laws to oversee it and well paid birth mothers then surrogacy should be as legal and normalized as adoption or normal procreation.
Sources:
Advanced search | Research | Think Tank | European Parliament
Gestation pour autrui (GPA) : quelles sont les évolutions du droit ? | vie-publique.fr
Les Français de plus en plus favorables à la légalisation de la GPA
Surrogacy: The legal situation in the EU
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About the author: Kolia is a secondary school student from Paris with a great interest in politics, human rights and non-discrimination. He carried out a 5-day placement in the COFACE secretariat to learn about European policies and how they support families.
**DISCLAIMER: All opinions in this article reflect the views of the author, not of COFACE Families Europe**
