New York, 12 March 2026

Your Excellencies,
Distinguished speakers,
Delegates to the Commission on the Status of Women,
Ladies and Gentlemen,

I would like to express my appreciation for our partners in this event, the Government of Italy as well as Türkiye and Paraguay.

The issue of surrogacy is an urgent one, in which, unfortunately, the technology and practice has run laps around the law and ethics. It is also quite sensitive: many view surrogacy as a compassionate solution for those wishing to be parents. However understandable that aim, the whole context must be taken into account in assessing whether this practice is compatible with respect for the dignity and rights of women and children.

Many women who become surrogates cite economic need as their primary reason for doing so. It is not happenstance that stories of the rich and famous commissioning surrogates are common, whereas stories of wealthy women serving as surrogates are rare.

The demand for children born through surrogacy already exceeds the supply. The very measures that could best alleviate the conditions which put women at risk of exploitation in surrogacy, such as social protection, education, and economic opportunity, would likely lead to their refusal to enter such arrangements.
One must question whether the surrogacy industry could survive if poverty were eradicated.

Where commercial arrangements are permitted, potential surrogates may find themselves in a perverse competition for commissioning parents. Even in jurisdictions where commercial surrogacy is prohibited, there is reason to believe that in many cases reasonable compensation for costs or “gifts” disguise payments.

Some women who would not want to enter surrogacy arrangements may be pressured or even forced into them by family members. Poor women are unlikely to afford independent legal or medical advice and may be reticent to ask questions or refuse requests if it jeopardizes the potential payday.

We must also consider the potential collateral costs of surrogacy. One journalist found that she would have been able to require that the surrogate mother stay in a home where her diet, activity, and health could be monitored.

This represents an inappropriate level of oversight but, more concerningly, isolates women from their children and families. Yet those who remain with their families until childbirth may face questions from their own children about why mother is not keeping this baby.

This fragmentation of family bonds reflects the deeper dangers of commodifying not only pregnancy but children.  As Pope Francis said, “A child is always a gift and never the basis of a commercial contract.”[1] Yet when a child is the object of a contract and a transaction, how can her commodification be avoided?
 
It cannot be entirely surprising, then, in at least two instances over a dozen babies have been found being cared for by nannies in rented homes while the commissioning parents continue to hire more and more women as surrogates.[2]

Additionally, this commodification of children can become entangled with prejudices to harmful effect, as in the case of prenatal disability diagnoses. In such cases, the child becomes a flawed “product” or a problem to be solved rather than a gift to be welcomed and cherished.[3]

This attitude is completely at odds with a flourishing and just society in which children can thrive. Indeed, children have rights and interests which must be respected, starting with a moral right to be created in an act of love.[4]

Under the Convention on the Rights of the Child—the most widely ratified human rights instrument—children also have a right to know and be cared for by their parents.[5] That these rights cannot always be realized should not be used to excuse a practice which deliberately violates them.  

While sympathetic to the very real and understandable desire to have children, we do not believe that these problems can be cured by regulation. In this regard, we were glad to learn that the Hague Conference on Private International Law has recently decided, at least for the time being, not to pursue further a convention on legal parentage under surrogacy arrangements.[6]

As Pope Leo has stressed, “By transforming gestation into a negotiable service, [surrogacy] violates the dignity both of the child, who is reduced to a ‘product,’ and of the mother, exploiting her body and the generative process, and distorting the original relational calling of the family.”[7]

For that reason, the Holy See is heartened by this event and hopes that it will lead to further steps toward ending this practice in all its forms and at all levels to protect women and children from exploitation and violence. Thank you.

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[1] Pope Francis, Address to the Members of the Diplomatic Corps accredited to the Holy See, 8 January 2024.

[2] See, e.g., Emilie Ikeda, Alicia Victoria Lozano, & Minyvonne Burke, NBC News,
“Surrogate was horrified to learn the couple she bore a baby for had 21 children,” 16 July 2025 (https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/surrogate-was-horrified-learn-couple-bore-baby-21-children-rcna219212), and Jonathan Head, BBC News, “Mitsutoki Shigeta: 'Baby factory' dad wins paternity rights”, 20 February 2018 (https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-43123658).

[3] See, e.g., Timofey Neshitov, De Spiegel, “We Promised Bridget We Would Come Get Her”, 6 April 2022, available at https://www.spiegel.de/international/world/the-perils-of-wartime-adoption-we-promised-bridget-we-would-come-get-her-a-abf4ad88-9c62-48b6-8b9b-f57bc3afeeba.

[4] Cf. Catechism of the Catholic Church No. 2378.

[5] Convention on the Rights of the Child, art. 7.1.

[6] Council on General Affairs and Policies, Hague Conference on Private International Law, Conclusions and Decisions, No. 4, available at https://assets.hcch.net/docs/02477490-2f8a-47ff-b17c-fed725e6ff3b.pdf.

[7] Pope Leo XIV, Address to the members of the Diplomatic Corps accredited to the Holy See, 9 January 2026.