Maria de Koninck, sociologist and Professor Emeritus at the Faculty of Medicine, Laval University, Quebec, believes that surrogacy should be “banned at all costs”. Two recent decisions forced the province to acknowledge the adoption of babies by Quebec parents who had commissioned surrogate mothers in Asia, and the Government is seeking to “clarify the current legal uncertainty”. However, as far as the sociologist is concerned, the much-needed debate has not taken place because “the issue of rights clouds reflection to a considerable extent. In recent decades, legislation has focused on the rights of the individual, which is, of course,commendable, but we have now reached the point where rights take precedence over discussions for the common good”. Amongst these rights, the “rights to have a child”is“hotly contested”and blocks any form of debate. She also denounces “the confusion surrounding the rights of homosexuals in this context. Does prohibition of surrogacy negate their rights because this approach would allow them to have children? A child is not an object to which we are entitled”. At the root of this “right to have child” there is the “social implication of the desire to have a child at any price – to have their own child at any price, which also causes distress”. The sociologist refers to it as the “pathologicalisation and medicalisation of the desire to have a child. Since medicine has made it possible for an infertile couple to have a child, people no longer have to bemoan their lot. People can rise above it, like society. It’s a delicate issue… “.
Québec Science, Mélissa Guillemette (1/06/2017)