SW News: As many as 76 lawyers, doctors and psychologists from around the globe gathered in the Moroccan city of Casablanca recently to discuss how surrogacy is nothing but a violation of human rights. They brought out a declaration on the universal abolition of surrogacy last week. In the declaration, they said, “A child is always a gift, not an object of adult desire.”

The experts urged nations to pass laws to combat surrogacy as it is a violation of human rights and the dignity of the individual. Surrogacy involves a woman getting pregnant on behalf of another childless couple. When it comes to surrogacy at a commercial level, several European nations have forbidden it. However, altruistic surrogacy is legal in those countries. Only Georgia and Ukraine have laws permitting commercial surrogacy.

Experts who gathered in Casablanca on Friday, March 3, said that there has to be a global response to this issue. According to Professor Montserrat Gas Aixendri from Spain, “We want to focus on the outcome-the abolition of surrogacy-without risking disagreement.” She said she came to this convention not for the sake of her Christian faith, but with the conviction that every human being is entitled to fundamental rights. She said many people without faith have come to the same conclusions.

Professor Aixendri said, “I understand that there are people who wish to have a child and see surrogacy as a solution. To those people, I would say that this legitimate desire cannot be achieved at any cost, especially if that cost is treating vulnerable women as if they were objects and treating children as if they were commodities to be bought and sold. A child is always a gift, not an object of adult desire.”

Surrogacy is banned in Morocco and violators can be penalized. In Spain, it is in limbo. It is neither permitted nor prohibited. So, this situation is exploited by Spaniards who go abroad and get a child and then seek the help of the authorities to register them as their own children.