Doc. 9715

3 March 2003

Social and health issues related to surrogate motherhood

Motion for a recommendation

presented by Mr Monfils and others

1.       Certain women or certain couples, faced with the personal inability to bear a child, are turning to the practice of surrogacies.

2.       Public opinion is divided as to the acceptability of surrogacies. They are generally prohibited in most countries, France for instance.

3.       Surrogacy is nonetheless legal in a few countries such as the United Kingdom as a treatment for infertility in couples, subject to certain conditions. The surrogate mothers are unpaid volunteers. Surrogacy is also legal in the United States. It is practised in Belgium, Israel and some countries of Central and Eastern Europe. Moreover, in some of the states concerned, the surrogate mother is remunerated and not just refunded the expenses incurred.

4.       Inter-state differences in legislation and pervasive commercialism encourage a kind of reproductive tourism, greatly assisted by the new technologies such as Internet. Sites which advertise surrogate mothers are proliferating. Recourse to a surrogate mother, in being placed within everybody’s reach, becomes a societal phenomenon that must command the attention of politicians.

5.       Surrogacy raises moral, ethical and legal issues. Children born as a result of an illicit transaction may find themselves without a legal mother. The distress caused by a possible breach of the arrangement made with the surrogate mother can have disastrous consequences. The current legal uncertainty is detrimental both to the parents and to the children.

6.       Surrogacy should not remain taboo, nor should it be targeted by a highly lucrative market without coming under debate, particularly in the political circles of the Council of Europe. The Assembly therefore invites the Committee of Ministers to examine this question and to draw up appropriate recommendations to member states.

Signed (see overleaf)

Signed : ¹

Monfils, Belgium, LDR

Alís Font, Andorra, SOC

Arnau, Spain, SOC

Bargholtz, Sweden, LDR

Baška, Slovakia, SOC

Hancock, United Kingdom, LDR

Ionescu, Romania, NR

Malachowski, Poland, SOC

Olekas, Lithuania, SOC

Popa, Romania, SOC

Poty, Belgium, SOC

Timmermans, Belgium, SOC

¹        SOC: Socialist Group

      EPP: Group of the European People’s Party

      EDG: European Democratic Group

      LDR : Liberal, Democratic and Reformers’ Group

      UEL: Group of the Unified European Left

      NR: not registered in a group