What's wrong with Surrogacy?
As advocates for women’s liberation, we oppose all forms of violence against women and girls. Surrogacy is reproductive exploitation. It objectifies the woman as a human incubator and treats children as commodities to be traded across borders. Surrogacy is recognised as a form of exploitation and is banned in the majority of jurisdictions across the world.
In 2024, the Irish government intend to pass liberalising laws that will regulate domestic and international surrogacy arrangements in Ireland. We oppose these plans. We need your help to campaign against this state-sanctioned exploitation and trafficking of women and children. Will you join us?
FAQs
Most frequent questions and answers about surrrogacy.
This bill intends to regulate assisted human reproduction in Ireland for the first time. This includes fertility treatments like IVF, sperm and egg donor conception, and most worryingly, surrogacy.
In its initial form, the bill only covered domestic altruistic surrogacy. However, following lobbying from pro-surrogacy interest groups, a Joint Committee on International Surrogacy was set up. Members included Senator Mary Seery Kearney, who has a child through surrogacy via India (where commercial & non-national surrogacy was later banned). This committee came up with a number of recommendations to regulate overseas surrogacy which were implemented into the bill in December 2023.
The plans for both domestic and overseas surrogacy are extremely flawed, and exhibit no regard for the wellbeing of women and children.
Particularly worrying is the plan to regulate overseas surrogacy agreements. The international surrogacy industry is rife with corruption, and Irish law cannot control what happens outside of its own jurisdiction – it cannot ensure that a surrogate mother abroad is treated fairly, or that overseas clinicians operate in an ethical manner.
One glaring issue is that the bill claims that commercial surrogacy will not be allowed, and only “reasonable expenses” may be paid to the surrogate mother. It is unknown what would be considered within the scope of “reasonable expenses”, as no terms are defined and no monetary limits are outlined. However, we do know that in countries where “reasonable expenses” are allowed to be paid to the surrogate under the guise of altruism, payments can run into the tens of thousands.
The recommendations made by the joint committee on international surrogacy cannot guarantee the wellbeing of overseas surrogate mothers. The only thing that will be ensured is that Irish commissioning parents secure parental rights via a legal framework. This legislation only serves the privileged.
Ireland has a shameful history when it comes to the treatment of women and children. One such injustice was the 2,000 plus children who were adopted from Ireland to the US, many of their mothers victims of mother and baby homes. The Government’s decision on surrogacy demonstrates that our country has not progressed from this backward notion of exploiting women for their reproductive abilities and treating children like commodities to be traded across borders.
Firstly, you should stay up to date with the latest news regarding the bill by following us via our website and social media and spread the word about what’s happening.
You can reach out to TDs and senators by calling, writing emails and letters. If you need an idea of what to write, Stop Surrogacy Now have letter writing guidelines which will be of help.
If you’re interested in getting more involved in this campaign, if you’re willing to distribute leaflets, or if you have a campaigning idea, we’d love to hear it. Please reach out to us!
Surrogacy arrangements, including “altruistic” ones, usually involve power imbalances: older, wealthier commissioning parents and a younger, poorer woman acting as surrogate. These women can face financial, social and familial coercion or pressure. In addition, the negative effects on infants in such arrangements are identical to those in commercial surrogacy.
Marxist-feminist writer Kajsa Ekis Ekman describes the myth of altruistic surrogacy in her book Being and Being Bought – Prostitution, Surrogacy and the Split Self:
“In reality, “altruistic” surrogacy means that a woman goes through exactly the same thing as in commercial surrogacy, but gets nothing in return. It demands of the woman to carry a child for nine months and then give it away. She has to change her behaviour and risk infertility, a number of pregnancy-related problems, and even death. She is still used as a vessel, even if told she is an angel. The only thing she gets is the halo of altruism, which is a very low price for the effort and can only be attractive in a society where women are valued for how much they sacrifice, not what they achieve.”
What We've Written About Surrogacy
The Myth of Altruism: How Ireland is Legalising Commercial Surrogacy by Stealth
Stop the propaganda. Surrogacy is a human rights violation.
Letters in the Irish media about Surrogacy
Read the Joint Report of European Network of Migrant Women & International Coalition for the Abolition of Surrogate Motherhood
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