Swedish feminists have issued a policy paper condemning commercial surrogacy and calling for a government ban.

Swedish feminists have issued a policy paper condemning commercial surrogacy and calling upon their government to ban the practice. The Swedish Women’s Lobby (Sveriges Kvinnolobby) argues that surrogacy is a health risk and violates poor women’s human rights.

“Allowing surrogacy is to make use of women’s bodies and reproductive organs for the enjoyment of someone else, to the detriment of the woman herself. We premiere the right to bodily integrity and fundamental human rights over the right to children, which is in fact not a human right, but has been treated as such in the discourse on surrogacy. We renounce the view of a liberal market- approach to surrogacy and the right of the paying buyers which are [privileged] whilst women’s rights are negotiated.

“ … we are seeing a trend towards a dismantling of these fundamental rights in favor of the will and want of individuals to become parents in the name of their individual fulfillment. The issue of surrogacy has been treated within the discourse of reproductive rights and the means of childless parents to have a baby, when the human rights perspective is the only plausible in dealing with this issue. We find that the current investigation in Sweden is being issued on the wrong grounds and that the set of voices that are asking for an investigation are lacking a human rights perspective. We therefore call on the Swedish government to forbid surrogacy motherhood.

“An end needs to be put to the industry of surrogacy that reduces the female body to a container! Having a feminist approach to surrogacy means rejecting the idea that women can be used as containers and their reproductive capabilities can be bought. The right to bodily integrity is a right which should not be able to be negotiated by any form of contract. No matter the regulation or the nature of the contract, it still remains a trade with women’s bodies and with children. The rights of women and children, not the interest of the buyer, must be the focus of the debate surrounding surrogacy.”

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Michael Cook

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