Surrogacy
, that is, when a woman agrees to carry a pregnancy for another person or persons, has brought challenges for Medicine and Law, according to experts of the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM).
The experts have highlighted that there should be a legislation to regulate this practice to prevent abuses and ensure the consent of the parties involved.
Germán Fajardo, director of the Faculty of Medicine of the UNAM, said surrogacy is an important albeit polemic topic that has different angles which further “complicate” the issue.
Alicia Hamui Sutton, Secretary of Medical Education of the same Faculty said that regulating surrogacy is better than allowing an absolute freedom or imposing a prohibition, as this practice benefits certain individuals but abuses and exploitation need to be prevented .
“The Law has to ensure the well-being of the parties involved, gender freedom, freedom of belief, and all the aspects which are part of the Constitution,” Hamui Sutton said, adding that procedures have to be performed under adequate sanitary conditions.
Luz Orozoco y Villa, a clerk at the Supreme Court of Justice, explained surrogacy can have commercial purposes because surrogate mothers are compensated beyond medical expenses, yet it can also be an altruistic act.
She highlighted that countries like Germany, France, Italy, and China have completely forbidden this practice, whereas the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, and South Africa have only prohibited commercial surrogacy.
Among the countries which allow the latter are India, Russia, and Ukraine.
The three key points to ensure the ethics of the procedure that should shape the legislation, according to the expert, are informed consent, provisions for contingencies, and confidentiality .
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