Spain: Surrogacy Practiced Abroad Will No Longer Be Recognized

Thus, on March 3, 2023, some one hundred experts from 75 nationalities gathered in Casablanca to sign a Declaration on the Abolition of Surrogacy. Doctors, psychologists, lawyers, philosophers, and sociologists came together to propose that states commit to abolishing surrogacy by signing an "International Convention for the Abolition of Surrogacy."

Russia, Ukraine, Canada, and some states in the United States allow surrogacy, but in Europe, it is mostly prohibited. It is tolerated in some countries such as the Netherlands, Greece, and Denmark. Faced with the legal vacuum surrounding it, some countries, such as Belgium, accept it without legally regulating it within their territories.

The EU, for its part, is sending contradictory signals. On the one hand, the European Parliament passed a (non-binding) resolution on December 14, 2024, aiming to have Member States accept cross-border recognition of all aspects of parentage "regardless of how the child was conceived, born, or the type of family they have."

On the other hand, on April 23, 2024, the European Parliament voted on an amendment to the Human Trafficking Directive that includes surrogacy among the acts of human trafficking that Member States are required to punish.

In December 2024, the Italian Senate voted to expand the criminalization of surrogacy to include the "crime of surrogacy committed abroad by an Italian citizen." Italian nationals using a surrogate mother abroad are liable to a sentence of up to two years in prison and a fine of €1 million.

In Spain, the practice of surrogacy has been prohibited by law since 2006. However, children born through surrogacy performed abroad could be directly registered in the civil registry if the sponsors presented a court decision issued in the country where the surrogacy was performed, establishing the filiation between the sponsors and the child.

By an instruction dated April 28, 2025, the left-wing Spanish government has just prohibited the direct enrollment in the civil registry of children born through surrogacy abroad. To obtain this registration, the sponsors of the child will have to prove the existence of a biological link "between one of the intended parents and the child" or initiate an adoption procedure.

Spanish regulations thus comply with the recent case law of the country's Supreme Court, which, in a decision dated December 4, 2024, declared surrogacy contracts contrary to public policy. According to the Supreme Court, these contracts seriously violate the rights of children and pregnant women.

Spain is therefore reclaiming the power to recognize a parentage or adoption relationship, based on biological reality or a formal adoption procedure, when the biological link is lacking. However, the measure does not go as far as Italy, which prohibits surrogacy not only within its territory but also abroad, making it punishable by criminal penalties.