Surrogacy Ban: Italy planning blanket law against ‘procreative tourism’, offenders to face €1m fine
Surrogacy has been banned in Italy for nearly 20 years and the country’s hard-right Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni strives to extend that prohibition to couples who want to have a child in countries like US, India and Canada
Image used for representative purpose. AFP
Rome: Italian couples who travel abroad to seek surrogates will now be imprisoned for at least two years or face a fine of €1 million under a new law that will eliminate “procreative tourism”.
Surrogacy has been banned in Italy for nearly 20 years and the country’s hard-right Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni strives to extend that prohibition to couples who want to have a child in countries like US, India and Canada.
The proposed law said, “The penalties should apply for offences committed abroad.”
Backers of the new legislation say through surrogacy babies were being treated as “merchandise” and that the birthing technique is an “execrable example of the commercialisation of the female body”.
The new law, which has found support from two politicians of Meloni’s Brothers of Italy Party, will also ban gay Italian couples from trying to have kids outside the country.
The supporters also said there had been a “dramatic” increase in “procreative tourism” in recent years.
“The recourse to this practice has dramatically increased and surrogacy is becoming a veritable business which, just to give an example, is €2 billion a year in India,” the supporters said while presenting the draft law.
According to party members surrogate mothers in India charge $25,000 to $30,000 while those in US charge around $50,000.
Before she became Italy’s first female prime minister, Meloni said, “A uterus for rent is a commercialisation of women’s bodies and human life.”
She also said that seeking out help from a surrogate mother should be considered a “universal crime”.
According to the president of Rainbow Families – an organisation that supports gay and lesbian couples – once the parliament passes the law, couples with babies born to a surrogate mother will likely be arrested at airports on their return to Italy.
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