For all their talk of human rights and equality, very few nations in the developed world have taken a critical view of the inherently exploitative practice of surrogacy. But Italy is one notable exception.
The Mediterranean nation has already banned the activity, but conservative Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni is now pushing for harsher penalties for anyone involved in the industry, including a prison sentence of up to two years.
“No one can convince me that it is an act of freedom to rent one’s womb. No one can convince me that it is an act of love to consider children as an over-the-counter product in a supermarket,” Meloni said recently. “I still consider the practice of uterus renting to be inhuman. I support the proposed law making it a universal crime.”
Those are strong words denouncing a practice that has become widespread in Western nations and is often billed as a charitable means to help families incapable of conceiving their own children. But Meloni is right. There is nothing charitable or compassionate about turning the conception of children into a commodity that can be bought and sold, which is what surrogacy does.
Surrogacy commoditizes the creation of children while enabling a movement that demands a right to a child. This perverse view of human life disregards the good of the child for the sake of the selfish desires of the people who seek to have a child. Instead of the product of a committed and selfless relationship, a child conceived through surrogacy is, in essence, an accessory to augment the public image of the relationship. Furthermore, the lack of regulation of the surrogacy industry restricts very few people from paying for a child, raising serious concerns about the well-being of the children who are conceived in this manner.
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Furthermore, the surrogacy industry allows for the exploitation of women’s bodies, reducing them simply to wombs-for-hire and ignoring the intense emotional and biological bond that is formed between a mother and the child she carries.
Meloni is right to criminalize this exploitative and disturbing practice in Italy. The rest of the world should follow her lead and end this exploitative and “inhuman” practice.