The Italian Government is debating a ban on so-called surrogacy tourism with Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni saying that “A uterus for rent is a commercialisation of women’s bodies and human life.”
While domestic surrogacy has been banned in Italy for the last two decades proponents of the ban say that international surrogacy – where would-be parents rent wombs overseas – is a booming industry which they say views babies as “merchandise”.
The move has provoked worry from lgbt voices who say that while heterosexual couples who engage in surrogacy overseas can attempt to pass off babies they return home with as natural offspring, homosexual couples cannot do so.
On Sunday Chamber of Deputies Vice President Fabio Rampelli (FDI/ECR) said that children raised by homosexual couples are “destined to grow up in a tormented life, simply because they would like to have a mother, as nature provides,”.
“There are those who have mistaken people for objects or animals,” he said.
In Italy domestic surrogacy carries penalties of 3 months to 2 years imprisonment and fines of €600,000 to €1,000,000.
The proposed ban on international surrogacy would see those convicted face fines of €1,000,000 and would extend to those engaging in surrogacy in countries where it is legal like the United States and Canada.
It was reported that Indian surrogates usually charge €25,000 to €30,000 to carry a child while surrogacy procurement in the US costs in the range of €50,000
Equal Opportunities and Family Minister Eugenia Roccella (FDI/ECR) reportedly said “The concept of surrogacy, which opens to a children’s market, should be better explained.”
“There are international fairs, one of which they even tried to do in Milan. But in Italy it is forbidden not only surrogacy but also its propaganda,” she said.
Speaking of the impact of surrogacy on vulnerable women she said that “A surrogacy costs about €100,000 and women get about €15,000-20,000.”
Roccella said that the practice of adoption remedies situations which commercial surrogacy only exacerbates, adding that the act of surrogacy was pushing society ‘backwards not forwards’.
“We are coming to forms of commodification and enslavement of the female body. This is not a front of progress.”she said
She spoke of the stark commodification of human life surrounding the surrogacy industry saying, “ On one side you buy egg cells, from brochures, from catalogues, from women who are beautiful, tall, of a certain religion and with another IQ. On the other hand, there are women who lend their wombs with very different characteristics,” she said.