In Sweden, feminists are calling for the condemnation of surrogacy due to related health risks and the fact that it violates the fundamental rights of poor women.
For them, authorising surrogacy is tantamount to “using women’s bodies and their reproductive organs for the pleasure of another, to the detriment of the woman herself. We prefer the right to physical integrity and fundamental human rights over the right to have a child, which is not a human right, but which has been treated as such because of the discussions regarding surrogacy. We refuse a liberal marketing approach to surrogacy and [refute] that the rights of the purchasers should be given preference when negotiating women’s rights”.
They went on to add, “There must be an end to the surrogacy industry which reduces a woman’s body to a mere container! Adopting a feminist approach to surrogacy means rejecting the idea that a woman can be used as a container and her reproductive capacity purchased. The right to integrity is a right which should not be negotiated through contracts. Legislation or the type of contract means nothing – a connection exists between the woman’s body and the child. The right of women and children as opposed to the interests of the purchaser must be at the heart of the surrogacy debate”.
Bioedge (Michael Cook) 18/10/2014