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Surrogacy Rise Risks Statelessness for Babies, Experts Warn
๐Ÿ‡ท๐Ÿ‡ธ Serbia /Culture & Society

Surrogacy Rise Risks Statelessness for Babies, Experts Warn

From N1 Serbia · () Serbian

Translated from Serbian, summarized and contextualized by DistantNews.

At a glance

News Named sources Context piece
  • Experts warn that the rise in international surrogacy increases the risk of babies being born stateless.
  • Efforts to establish a global convention on surrogacy have stalled due to divisions among member states.
  • Varying laws and lack of coordination create "precarious parenthood" and statelessness risks for children born via surrogacy.

An increasing number of babies born through international surrogacy face the risk of statelessness, prompting urgent calls for global regulation of the practice. Experts highlight that the complex legal landscape surrounding surrogacy arrangements across different countries leaves children vulnerable.

The lack of coordination between states on this issue leads to problems for children, and the risk of statelessness increases.

โ€” Michael HelnerProfessor Michael Helner, who led the Hague Conference working group on surrogacy, explained the consequences of international legal disparities.

The Hague Conference on International Private Law's 15-year effort to create a global convention on surrogacy has been halted. Divisions among member states regarding the ethics and legalities of surrogacy prevented consensus, according to The Guardian. This lack of a unified framework exacerbates the problem, as intended parents, often facing infertility, same-sex couples, or older individuals, seek surrogates abroad.

Laws on surrogacy vary significantly worldwide. While some nations, like Italy, ban the practice entirely, others, including certain U.S. states, permit commercial surrogacy. The UK allows only altruistic surrogacy, where surrogates are not paid beyond their expenses. UK agencies report that restrictive domestic laws push couples to seek surrogates overseas, where protections against exploitation may be weaker or nonexistent.

I invested 10 years of my life in this project. But if there is no political will, there is absolutely no point in us wasting more time and people's money.

โ€” Michael HelnerHelner expressed his frustration with the stalled progress on establishing a global surrogacy framework.

Professor Michael Helner, who chaired the Hague Conference working group, described the project's failure as a result of deeply divided views on surrogacy's ethics. He noted that the lack of coordination leads to "precarious parenthood," where a child may have different legal parents in different countries, and increases the risk of statelessness. This occurs when a child born in a territory doesn't automatically receive citizenship, and surrogacy isn't legally recognized in either the birth country or the child's intended destination.

Some countries were 'fiercely against anything that could be seen as legitimizing surrogacy, which they consider a violation of human rights and dignity.'

โ€” Michael HelnerHelner described the fundamental disagreements among member states that led to the project's failure.
DistantNews Editorial

Originally published by N1 Serbia in Serbian. Translated, summarized, and contextualized by our editorial team with added local perspective. Read our editorial standards.

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