Pressmediaofindia
Related Articles
10-01-2024
VATICAN CITY: The Head of the Catholic Church, on Monday, called for a global ban on surrogate motherhood, calling the practice “deplorable” and one that violates the dignity of the woman and the child.
“I deem deplorable the practice of so-called surrogate motherhood, which represents a grave violation of the dignity of the woman and the child, based on the exploitation of situations of the mother’s material needs,” Francis, 87, said in wide-ranging 45-minute address, sometimes called his “state of the world” speech, to ambassadors of 184 countries that have diplomatic relations with the Vatican, reports Reuters.
“A child is always a gift and never the basis of a commercial contract,” he added. “Consequently, I express my hope for an effort by the international community to prohibit this practice universally.”
Statistics on the number of babies born through surrogacy are limited and the practice is illegal in many countries across the world as well as some states in the U.S. The practice is also illegal in Italy, the country that surrounds the Vatican with Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s right-wing coalition ruling pushing to extend the existing ban to punish couples who go abroad to carry out the procedure, according to media.
Surrogacy critics say that commercial surrogacy negatively impacts women who are poor and from vulnerable communities, while supporters of the practice say surrogacy gives women an opportunity to provide children to those who cannot conceive themselves and that the commercial contracts offer protection to both the surrogates and the intended parents.
Earlier, Pope Francis has formally permitted priests to perform blessings for same-sex couples, a move that stops short of sanctioning same-sex marriages, but is still being heralded by some LGBTQ+ advocates as historic.
The document from the Vatican’s doctrine office released Monday reaffirmed its previous statements saying marriage is a sacrament between a man and a woman. But the document says requests for blessings from same-sex couples should not be denied, so long as the blessing is not conferred at the same time as a civil union, using set rituals or with the clothing and gestures that are part of a wedding.
GLAAD President and CEO Sarah Kate Ellis called Monday’s announcement “the latest in a historic pattern of actions and announcements from Pope Francis which show that LGBTQ people should not be used as a dividing issue, and we are worthy of love, respect and compassion.” (Int’l Monitoring Desk)
