Pope Francis has called for a universal ban on surrogacy, an arrangement in which a woman agrees to carry and give birth to a child on behalf of another person or couple.

The pope said that surrogacy is deplorable and violation of the dignity of a woman and the child.

He cited that it is a practice of commercialisation and exploitation.

‘’A child is always a gift and never the basis of a commercial contract,’’ he emphasised.

He insisted that human life should be protected and defended at every moment of its existence.

This is not the first time that the pope has countered the practice, he had previously  said that children born out of homosexual parents’ surrogacy could be baptized, as long as there was ‘a well-founded hope that [the child] will be educated in the Catholic religion’.

The Catholic church does not support Surrogacy as well as vitro infertilization, holding that they are violations to embryos lives.

In 2022 ,Pope Francis said that surrogacy was an inhuman and increasingly widespread practice of the ‘rented uterus’ in which women, almost always poor women are exploited and children treated as commodities.

Surrogacy has been banned in some countries like Italy ,Spain and Taiwan with some allowing  it though under strict regulations of not commercialising the practice ; with proponents advocating its legalisation as it gives an opportunity to women who have issues with giving birth  naturally.

Pope’s stance emerges after questions and discussions on the intricacies of surrogacy; it’s legality, ethical and religious issues associated with it.

During the  speech on Monday, the head of the Catholic church also took a strong stand against abortion and noted with regret that in the West especially, the continued spread of the culture of death which in the name of a false compassion discards children, the elderly and the sick.