Anne Lastman

The Supreme Court of Spain has stated that surrogacy exploits women and harms the dignity and rights of the children conceived. The court made a statement which sent social media and secular media into frenzy. Pope Francis early in 2024 called for a universal ban on surrogate motherhood.

In his annual speech using words such as “despicable” practice of surrogate motherhood which he concluded as the commercialisation of “pregnancy” this practice was listed together with the many threats he listed to global and human peace, and the determined destruction of human dignity. The Spanish Supreme Court appears to have concurred with the decision of the Holy Father, Pope Francis, and for the same reasons.  Exploitation of women and loss of dignity for the new life, child, created.  

Sadly, we do have biblical precedence of surrogacy occurring and it’s not new.  The biblical precedence is found with Abraham, Sarai, and Hagar and their solution to childlessness.

At a very old age Sarah had yet to bear Abraham a child and heir and conceived the idea and solution  to fulfil the promise that God had made to her husband.  To be the father of many nations, was to offer her Egyptian slave girl, Hagar, to Abraham, so that they could have a child by her and then the child would be raised by Sarah and Abraham as their own child and the child would fulfill the promises made by God to Abraham.  Abraham consented to this arrangement, (I think he might have approved of the idea!) taking Hagar as wife when he was in his late 85th year of age and fathering Ishmael.   

Surrogacy flying quietly under the radar has, in modern times, slowly taken its own place (along with IVF) within the “life” world and nothing or no one seems to have said or written much about this.  We have heard of “famous” movie stars who speak of having a child by a surrogate mother, same sex individuals having baby/babies by surrogate mothers, women for whom the maintenance of body image, but still wanting a child using surrogate to fulfil both wants (body image and child) and even barrenness leading to desire for a child using surrogacy. Recently a news item carried a story about a grandmother carrying in her womb her grandchild and the mother and father of the child thought it wonderful that the same womb carried the mother and then her own child.  Already surrogacy has taken a different step on its own slippery slope using beautiful and supposedly good reasons to accomplish the end result. 

 Whilst this is thought by some as strange morality and by others even disgusting, the customs of the time of Abraham dictated that no man should die without an heir and ways were devised to remedy this perceived shame.  While Hagar was acknowledged as the birth mother, the child conceived would belong (objectified) to Sarah and Abraham and if Sarah (legal wife) and Abraham did not have their own child then this child (Ishmael) would be the heir. But never fully belonging only tentatively until if or when one was born to the covenanted couple, then this new conception would supersede the child born from the transaction between Abraham, Sarah, and Hagar. 

Genesis 16:7-16 describes the naming of Ishmael, and later Yahweh’s  promise to Hagar concerning Ishmael and his descendants. This occurred at the well of Beer-Lahai-Roi, located in the desert region between Abraham’s settlement and Shur. 

Hagar fled there after Sarai dealt harshly with her for showing contempt for her mistress following her having become pregnant. Here, at the well, Hagar encountered an angel of Hashem (God) who instructed her to return and be submissive to Sarah so that she could give birth to the child there. The blessing that this child’s father was promised was that his (Abraham’s) descendants would be as numerous as the dust of the earth or even as numerous as the stars of heaven. However, the fulfilment of the promise would be by a son of Sarah; yet God would make of this child, Ishmael, also a great nation, because he was also of the seed of Abraham. When Ishmael was born, Abraham was 86 years old.  Other Biblical references to surrogacy include Gen 16:1-16; Gen. 30: 1-8; Gen. 9:13; Duet : 25: 5-6. 

So, surrogacy has a known history of at least five thousand years. 

What makes surrogacy attractive to modern thought is the fact that movie stars and high-profile figures have made it legitimate.  The “gestational carrier” term removes the word  mother and idea and reality that it’s possible to “buy” or even “create” (IVF) “trade” a child to satisfy the desires of the adults, thus making a commodity of the human being. Removing completely the dignity inherent in each human being created through an embrace and desired for who he/she was rather than preempting a mis read promise of God.

Both the Holy Father Pope Francis (in early January 2024) and the Spanish Supreme Court      (Dec. 18/2024) have used similarly strong words against the practice when speaking and banning surrogacy because as rightly says, the child conceived is conceived to fulfil  human wants using any method,  with documents of transaction, a fee paid for the purchase, hiring of womb for the gestation of the child.  Human trafficking from even pre conception and in this there is the removal of “the attraction, love, marriage, conception” and in its stead  intent, and “purchase” and thus the loss of  “dignity” factor. 

In an era when 50,000,000-70,000,000 abortions per year occur and only miniscule availability of babies for adoption, then it becomes possible to see why the “manufacture” of babies to satisfy the wants of those who can afford them is a response prideful, anathema.

When those who speak out against surrogacy it’s often thought that they  are ungrateful, hypocritical, anti-life because in these cases a child is wanted, and not aborted  (though can and will be if found disabled or be rejected and left behind  when not as expected ) and so surrogacy should be a win win situation for all.  But this completely  misses the point of using  the of body of woman, paying for a portion of her body, her most intimate part of her body for personal use,  and of course then there is loss of dignity both for woman and child and indeed one might add the future carers of the child.

The point and the problem with surrogacy is that a child is “created” to satisfy the “want” of those who want a baby in any way and at any cost possible.  It, in fact, becomes a race to satisfy the want through a commercial transaction.  Most often very poor surrogate mothers found and engaged because of their own need for financial reward. 

Again, as I have mentioned in past writings, I am reminded of Professor Salvatore Mancuso of the Catholic University of Rome who said that beginning from the fifth week gestation an infinite number of messages pass from baby to mother through chemical substances.  This dialogue between mother and child alerts the mother to the new creation she is carrying and helps her to adapt psychologically and physically to the reality that she is carrying a new creation.  Further, the child (embryo) sheds and sends stem cells which colonize the mother’s brain stem and attach to it and remain with her for the rest of her life. Furthermore, these cells have receptors for neurotransmitters which assist messages to pass, and which the mother’s nervous system can comprehend and respond to.

The baby’s cells pass to the mother in large quantities at birth whether by natural birth or caesarian and even abortion and have been found in the mother up to 30 years after the child’s birth.  It’s as though thoughts pass from mother to child even years after birth. This is the intimacy of conception which only a mother can experience and the tragedy which is abortion or even adoption and surrogacy.  There is a longing for someone lost. The longing for a child conceived for surrogacy purposes  at times leading to a mother not wanting to surrender that child which she contracted to give to the future parents. A deep connection has been formed and her mother’s heart is unable to surrender the child she carried even at the loss of the fees transacted and her insecure future. 

When we consider the intimacy of conception, language of the bodies (man and woman) and the intricacy and dialogue which goes on between mother and child, from the moment of conception till birth, then employing a surrogate creates a grave injustice both towards mother and child because these two are linked through invisible dialogue, cells and thread for the rest of their lives, and giving the child to another causes a lifelong unknown  sense of loneliness for both. A longing for one another. 

When compared to adoption, which surrogacy often is, there is a difference in the two decisions concerning children.  Adoption always places the welfare of an already born child first, and whilst this may not always appear to be so, to the child and later adult, adoption has said “yes” to life and “no” to death (abortion).  Surrogacy on the other hand had said “yes” to life but conditional.  The conditions being financial, and commodification of a woman, lack or loss of dignity for both woman and child,  without considering the deep relationship which would develop between a woman and her body’s response, dialogue, and relationship with the new very special  guest she is carrying in her body.

To return to the Biblical precedent of surrogacy, indeed the fulfilment of the promise of a child for Abraham via the medium of surrogacy was achieved, but the long-term ramifications have not been good.  Ishmael, the innocent child and not child of the covenant, did grow to become the “father” of many nations as foretold but the suffering which has endured between the descendants of Ishmael and the descendants of Isaac (family feud) has endured  for many millennia. Sarah’s desire for a child at any cost, using any means, has cost her people, and the children of both her surrogate, Hagar, very dearly there has never been peace between the two brothers which continues to this day.

Surrogacy whilst ostensibly appearing as something good, ultimately has pain inscribed into it. This because God did not create humanity for the purpose of buying and selling themselves and forgetting that there is something which cannot be bought, dignity and love written within the mother’s cells which merge with those of the child and dialogue with one another and at times even act to save the life of one or the other.