In Brussels, on Sunday 3 May, the American Association, “Men having babies”organised a grant for surrogate mothers at the Maison de la Région (BIP)[1], place royale.
The aim of this Conference known as “Being a gay dad”, was to “put private clinics and American services specialising in surrogacy in contact with homosexual couples wishing to have a child”. According to De Standaard, “a baby could cost as much as 100,000 dollars”.
The cdH (Centre for Human Rights and Democracy) drafted a press release denouncing the “marketing of the human body”and declaring it “unacceptable for (…) other people to bring into our country a model aimed at developing the existing business surrounding surrogacy, making middle-men wealthy and viewing surrogate mothers as baby-making machines”. The cdH also declared its opposition to“sliding towards eugenics” – an approach boosted by “this type of organisation”.
MP Anne-Charlotte d’Ursel is “aghast that the BIP could have been overwhelmed by an organisation guaranteeing the commercial promotion of surrogacy”. In a press release, she announced her intention to call on Minister President Rudty Vervoot at the Brussels Parliament to ensure that “this type of problem does not recur”.
“Commercial surrogacy is similar to the trafficking of human beings”according to MP Karin Jirofflée, council for the legalisation of “non-commercial surrogacy”.
It should be noted that no Belgian association took part in this conference.
[1] The headquarters of the Government of the Brussels-Capital Region.
Le Vif (02/05/2015); L’avenir.net(02/05/2015)