The Government of Italy, in collaboration with the Holy See, Chile, and Cameroon, convened a high-level side event on surrogacy at the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva on June 22.
Representatives of the participating states presented a joint declaration calling for an international moratorium on surrogacy as a step toward its eventual global abolition. The event, titled “Building Momentum Towards a Moratorium on Surrogacy,” was motivated by concerns over the increasing physical, psychological, medical, and ethical harms associated with surrogacy. The rapid growth of the surrogacy industry, projected to hit nearly $100 billion by 2033, was another cause of concern.
Italy’s Minister for Family, Birth Rate and Equal Opportunities, Eugenia Roccella, framed the surrogacy debate as a fundamental question about the status of the human person.
She asked whether society still recognizes human beings as persons “who must be respected” or is willing to accept a situation in which they become “a means to satisfy the interests or needs of others.”
Roccella described the declaration as establishing “a common political commitment” to support an international moratorium on surrogacy while laying the groundwork for “an international legal framework aimed at abolishing surrogacy worldwide.”
In March, the Permanent Observer Mission of the Holy See to the United Nations also raised concerns about surrogacy, warning that it is an area in which “technology and practice have run laps around the law and ethics.”
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