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A senior German lawmaker has resigned from his position as the Christian Democrats’ parliamentary leader after controversy erupted over his decision to use a surrogate mother abroad to get a child — a practice outlawed domestically.
Christian Democratic Union (CDU) politician Jens Spahn sparked national debate when he revealed that he and his partner, Daniel Funke, had acquired a child via surrogacy in the United States, despite his party’s staunch opposition to the practice.
In a letter obtained by German publication Der Spiegel, Spahn announced his resignation, saying that “the increasing ruthlessness in public discourse has given me much to think about”.
“Over the past few days, I’ve realized that my personal happiness—starting a family with my husband and becoming a father—is incompatible with my political office,” Spahn wrote in the letter to his colleagues.
“The gap between my private decision to have a child through surrogacy and the understandable expectations placed on me as chair of our parliamentary group has become greater than I anticipated,” he said.
German Chancellor and CDU leader Friedrich Merz described Spahn’s decision to resign as “right” and “inevitable” in a post on X, adding that “credibility is the highest good in politics”.
However, the decision only came following extensive criticism, with a number of Spahn’s party colleagues calling for his resignation as a result of the revelation, with Merz himself reportedly asking Spahn to quit.
The controversy comes as international scrutiny and pressure mount against surrogacy, a recent joint political declaration calling for an “international moratorium” on the practice.
The initiative, which is led by the governments of Chile and Italy, established a shared commitment to “achieving the global abolition of surrogacy”, and promotes the international moratorium as an intermediary measure as a legally-binding instrument is worked towards.
Presented at an event co-hosted by the governments of Italy, Chile, Cameroon and the Holy See on the sidelines of the 62nd session of the UN Human Rights Council, a number of senior political figures and diplomats expressed their support for the move against surrogacy.
Italian Minister for Family, Natality and Equal Opportunities Eugenia Roccella said that surrogacy is “no longer a matter confined to domestic legislation or individual choices”.
“It has become a global phenomenon, increasingly shaped by international markets, cross-border arrangements, and profound inequalities within and between societies.
“As policy-makers, we have a responsibility to ask a fundamental question: do we still recognize every human being as a person to be respected, or are we willing to accept situations in which human beings can become a means to satisfy the interests and desires of others?”, she said.
Meanwhile, the UN Special Rapporteur on violence against women and girls Reem Alsalem said that the states joining the declaration are recognising “fundamental concerns relating to human dignity [and] the commodification of women and children” raised by surrogacy.
“They recognise that these concerns are not only limited to commercial arrangements, but that fragmented national approaches will facilitate the growth of a global cross-border market that transfers harm onto women and children in more vulnerable jurisdictions,” she said, adding that the declaration “shows that policy action is possible”.
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