Italy Further Criminalizes Surrogacy

Source: FSSPX News

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The Italian Senate has just voted by a large majority on an amendment to the law making surrogate motherhood a “universal crime.” The vote further strengthens the position of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni. It is a result of the national-conservative movement, and it is also the culmination of the Holy See's recent condemnation of a practice designed to “propagate the culture of death.”

The votes came out with 84 “for” and 58 “against.” Giorgia Meloni is all smiles on this October 16, 2024, as the Senate has just approved her plan to fully criminalize the practice of surrogate motherhood. Since the law of February 19, 2004, anyone resorting to surrogacy on Italian soil has incurred a penalty of three months' to two years' imprisonment, and a fine ranging from 600,000 to 1 million euros.

The text adopted by the upper house of Parliament specifies that, from now on, “parents” who return to Italy after having resorted to this practice may be charged and subject to the same penalties. “With this measure—Massimiliano Romeo, president of the League group in the Senate, said—we want to prevent the ban in Italy from being circumvented, by going abroad to order a child who is then recognized in our country.”

Italy's Prime Minister applauded the senators' decision, declaring in the columns of Corriere della Sera that it was “a choice dictated by common sense against the commodification of the female body and children: human life has no price and is not a commodity to be traded at will.”

Somewhat dramatizing the amendment passed by the Senate, the Washington Post sees it as “the most restrictive law against surrogacy in the West, making it one of the few crimes that transcends borders, like terrorism or genocide.” As for the progressive media, usually choosing victimization over reflection, they denounce a text that “directly targets the LGBT community”...

The Federation of Catholic Family Associations in Europe (FAFCE) is relieved: its president, Vincenzo Bassi, tells the religious news agency Servizio Informazione Religiosa (SIR) that the Senate “rightly recognizes surrogacy as a form of human trafficking,” and hopes that the Italian example “will be a wake-up call throughout the world.”

Finally, it should be noted that Giorgia Meloni found an ally in the Vatican: while Pope Francis has often distanced himself from the anti-immigration policies of the Italian Prime Minister, the Pope's tone becomes more conciliatory with the champion of Fratelli d'Italia when it comes to defending the right to life.

Thus, in January 2024, addressing diplomats accredited by the Holy See, the Argentine Pontiff took a clear stand against surrogacy: “Dear Ambassadors, the path of peace requires respect for life, for all human life, beginning with that of the unborn child in the mother's womb, which cannot be eliminated, nor become the object of commodification.”

“In this respect,” he added, ”I find regrettable the practice of so-called surrogate motherhood, which seriously undermines the dignity of both woman and child. [...] At every moment of its existence, human life must be preserved and protected, whereas I note with regret, especially in the West, the persistent spread of a culture of death.”

This papal commitment was widely echoed by the Italian press, and seems to have won the support of the majority of parliamentarians in the Palazzo Madama.