We pay tribute to the courage of women’s organizations, individuals and human rights activists in Taiwan who are speaking out against attempts to open up surrogacy in Taiwan, as outlined in the Taipei Times article “Public hearings to be held on surrogacy” published on Jan. 23.
In doing so, they add their voices to those of other women’s organizations fighting against surrogacy in Belgium, Germany, Ukraine, Canada, Japan, South Korea, South American countries and elsewhere.
Surrogacy is wrongly portrayed as progress with a bright side, with intended parents elated to receive the children they have ordered, yet the dark side of surrogacy remains invisible: Nobody really cares about the women hired as surrogate mothers or the children born through surrogacy. However, everyone should be aware that surrogate pregnancies are riskier than natural pregnancies because of the technology used: genetic material foreign to the surrogate mother and multiple embryo transfers. Women who agree to this practice do so mostly out of economic necessity. All surrogacy contracts require surrogate mothers to give up their fundamental rights for the duration of the pregnancy, and international conventions show that surrogacy is akin to the sale of children and human trafficking.
We are grateful to Shan Hsin-ai (單信愛) and Hsieh Hui-chen (解慧珍), quoted in the Jan. 23 article, for raising these neglected issues in their speech.
Listen to the testimony of Alivia Maurel, a young woman born through surrogacy. At 32 years old, she still deals with a strong sense of abandonment and cannot get over the idea of having been exchanged for money. She was invited to speak in the Czech parliament and a video of her speech can be watched online.
The best interests of a child should not be bought or sold.
Marie-Josephe Devillers is co-president of the International Coalition for the Abolition of Surrogate Motherhood.
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