Right to children or children’s rights? Surrogacy debate comes to a head in Rome

ROME (AP) — An international campaign to ban surrogacy received a strong endorsement Friday from the Vatican, with a top official calling for a broad-based alliance to stop the “commercialization of life.”

A Vatican-affiliated university hosted a two-day conference promoting an international treaty to outlaw surrogacy, be it commercial arrangements or so-called altruistic ones. It's based on the campaigners' argument that the practice violates U.N. conventions protecting the rights of the child and surrogate mother.

At issue is whether there is a fundamental right to have a child, or whether the rights of children trump the desires of potential parents.

The conference, which also drew U.N. human rights representatives and experts, marked an acceleration of a campaign that has found some support in parts of the developing world and western Europe. At the same time, Canada and the United States are known for highly regulated arrangements that draw heterosexual and homosexual couples alike from around the world, while other countries allow surrogacy with fewer rules.

Pope Francis in January called for an outright global ban on the practice, calling it a despicable violation of human dignity that exploits the surrogate mother's financial need. On Thursday, Francis met privately with one of the proponents calling for a universal ban, Olivia Maurel, a 33-year-old mother of three.

Maurel was born in the U.S. in 1991 via surrogacy and attributes a lifetime of mental health issues to the “trauma of abandonment” she says she experienced at birth. She says she was separated from her biological mother and given to parents who had contracted with an agency in Kentucky after experiencing infertility problems when they tried to have children in their late 40s.

Maurel says she doesn’t blame her parents and she acknowledges there are “many happy stories” of families who use surrogate mothers. But she says that doesn’t make the practice ethical or right, even with regulations, since she said she was made to sacrifice “for the desire of adults to have a child.”

“There is no right to have a child,” Maurel told the conference at the LUMSA university. “But children do have rights, and we can say surrogacy violates many of these rights.”

She and proponents of a ban argue that surrogacy is fundamentally different from adoption, since it involves creating a child for the specific purpose of separating him or her from the birth mother for others to raise as their own.

Monsignor Miloslaw Wachowski, undersecretary for relations with states in the Vatican secretariat of state, concurred, saying the practice reduces human procreation to a concept of “individual will” and desire, where the powerful and wealthy prevail.

“Parents find themselves in the role of being providers of genetic material, while the embryo appears more and more like an object: something to produce — not someone, but something,” he said.

He called for the campaign to ban the practice not to remain in the sphere of the Catholic Church or even faith-based groups, but to transcend traditional ideological and political boundaries.

“We shouldn’t close ourselves among those who think exactly the same way,” he said. “Rather, we should open up to pragmatic alliances to realize a common goal.”

The Vatican’s overall position, which is expected to be crystalized in a position paper Monday on human dignity, stems from its belief that human life begins at conception and must be given the consequent respect and dignity from that moment on. The Vatican also holds that human life should be created through intercourse between husband and wife, not in a petri dish, and that surrogacy takes in vitro fertilization a step further by “commercializing” the resulting embryo.

As the conference was getting underway, Italy’s main gay family advocacy group, Rainbow Families, sponsored a pro-surrogacy counter-rally nearby. The aim was to also voice opposition to proposals by Italy’s hard-right-led government to make it a crime for Italians to use surrogates abroad, even in countries where the practice is legal.

“We are families, not crimes,” said banners held by some of the 200 or so participants, many of them gay couples who traveled abroad to have children via surrogate.

A 2004 law already banned surrogacy in Italy. The proposed law would make it illegal in Italy for citizens to engage a surrogate mother in another country, with prison terms of up to three years and fines of up to 1 million euros ($1.15 million) for convictions.

Participants at the rally complained that the law would stigmatize their children and they denied anyone's rights or dignity was violated in the surrogacy process, which they noted was legal and regulated.

“All parties involved are consenting, aware,” said Cristiano Giraldi, who with his partner Giorgio Duca used a surrogate in the U.S. to have their 10-year-old twins. "We have a stable relationship with our carrier, our children know her. So actually there is no exploitation, there is none of the things that they want the public to believe.”

In the U.S., Resolve, the National Infertility Association, which advocates for people experiencing infertility problems, has criticized any calls for a universal ban on surrogacy as harmful and hurtful to the many people experiencing the “disease of infertility.”

“Resolve believes that everyone deserves the right to build a family and should have access to all family building options,” Betsy Campbell, Resolve’s chief engagement officer, said in a telephone interview. “Surrogacy, and specifically gestational carrier surrogacy, is an option.”

She said the U.S. regulations, which include separate legal representation for the surrogate and the intended parents, and mental health and other evaluations, safeguard all parties in the process and that regardless less than 2% of pregnancies in the U.S. using assisted reproductive technology involves surrogacy.

“Most people do not expect to have infertility or to need medical assistance to build their families," she said. "So when non-medical people speak about IVF and surrogacy in a negative way, it can be very discouraging and make an already challenging journey all the more challenging.”

Velina Todorova, a Bulgarian member of the U.N. Committee on the Rights of the Child, told the Rome conference that the U.N. committee hasn’t taken a definitive position on surrogacy, but that its concern was the rights of children born via the practice.

It was a reference to legislation to prevent parents from being able to register the births of children born through surrogacy in their home countries.

Associated Press writer Paolo Santalucia contributed.

People hold banners reading "we are families not crimes" during a pro-surrogacy flash-mob in Rome, Friday, April 5, 2024. The rally was organised to counter proposals by Italy's hard-right-led government to make it a crime for Italians to try to use surrogates abroad, even in countries where the practice is legal. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)

Conference coordinator Bernard Garcia and Italian Minister for birth, family and equal opportunities, Eugenia Roccella right, attend a two-day conference promoting an international treaty to outlaw surrogacy at the LUMSA Vatican-affiliated university, in Rome, Friday, April 5, 2024. The conference is promoting the international treaty to outlaw surrogacy based on the argument that the practice violates U.N. conventions protecting the rights of the child and surrogate mother. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

Olivia Maurel, who was born through surrogacy and is against such practice is interviewed by the Associated Press in Rome, Thursday, April 4, 2024. Maurel met with Pope Francis and attended an International Conference of the Casablanca Declaration, an international campaign for the abolition of surrogacy calling for the adoption of an international treaty. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)

Olivia Maurel, a 33-year-old mother of three, who was born in the U.S. in 1991 via surrogacy, attends a press conference at the LUMSA Vatican-affiliated university, in Rome, Friday, April 5, 2024. The university is hosting a two-day conference promoting an international treaty to outlaw surrogacy based on the argument that the practice violates U.N. conventions protecting the rights of the child and surrogate mother. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

People attend a a two-day conference promoting an international treaty to outlaw surrogacy at the LUMSA Vatican-affiliated university, in Rome, Friday, April 5, 2024. The conference is promoting the international treaty to outlaw surrogacy based on the argument that the practice violates U.N. conventions protecting the rights of the child and surrogate mother. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

Olivia Maurel, who was born through surrogacy and is against such practice is interviewed by the Associated Press in Rome, Thursday, April 4, 2024. Maurel met with Pope Francis and attended an International Conference of the Casablanca Declaration, an international campaign for the abolition of surrogacy calling for the adoption of an international treaty. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)

Olivia Maurel, who was born through surrogacy and is against such practice is interviewed by the Associated Press in Rome, Thursday, April 4, 2024. Maurel met with Pope Francis and attended an International Conference of the Casablanca Declaration, an international campaign for the abolition of surrogacy calling for the adoption of an international treaty. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)

Olivia Maurel, who was born through surrogacy and is against such practice shows a picture of her meeting with Pope Francis during an interview by the Associated Press in Rome, Thursday, April 4, 2024. Maurel met with Pope Francis and attended an International Conference of the Casablanca Declaration, an international campaign for the abolition of surrogacy calling for the adoption of an international treaty. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)

Stefano, left, and Alessandro pose for a photo with their daughter during a pro-surrogacy flash-mob in Rome, Friday, April 5, 2024. The rally was organised to counter proposals by Italy's hard-right-led government to make it a crime for Italians to try to use surrogates abroad, even in countries where the practice is legal. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)

People hold banners reading " we are families not crimes" during a pro-surrogacy flash-mob in Rome, Friday, April 5, 2024. The rally was organised to counter proposals by Italy's hard-right-led government to make it a crime for Italians to try to use surrogates abroad, even in countries where the practice is legal. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)

Olivia Maurel, who was born through surrogacy and is against such practice is interviewed by the Associated Press in Rome, Thursday, April 4, 2024. Maurel met with Pope Francis and attended an International Conference of the Casablanca Declaration, an international campaign for the abolition of surrogacy calling for the adoption of an international treaty. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)

TANAH DATAR, Indonesia (AP) — Rescuers on Tuesday searched in rivers and the rubble of devastated villages for bodies, and whenever possible survivors, of flash floods that hit Indonesia’s Sumatra Island over the weekend.

Monsoon rains and a landslide of mud and cold lava from Mount Marapi caused rivers to breach their banks. The deluge tore through mountainside villages in four districts in West Sumatra province just before midnight Saturday.

The floods swept away people and 79 homes and submerged hundreds of houses and buildings, forcing more than 3,300 residents to flee to temporary government shelters, National Disaster Management Agency spokesperson Abdul Muhari said.

The National Search and Rescue Agency said in a statement that 52 bodies had been pulled from mud and rivers by Tuesday, mostly in the worst-hit Agam and Tanah Datar districts, while rescuers are searching for 20 people who are reportedly missing.

Indonesia’s Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency said that more downpours were forecast for the West Sumatra province in the coming days, and that the danger of extreme rainfall would continue until next week. The agency recommended the application of weather modification to reduce rain.

National Disaster Management Agency chief Suharyanto said that authorities would start seeding clouds in the province in a bid to prevent further rainfall and flash floods.

“We are deploying weather modification technology starting tomorrow so that rain does not fall during this emergency response period,” Suharyanto, who goes by a single name like many Indonesians, told reporters while visiting devastated areas in Agam district. He added that the emergency response will be ended on May 25.

Television reports showed rescue personnel using jackhammers, circular saws, farm tools and sometimes their bare hands, digging desperately in Agam district where roads were transformed into murky brown rivers and villages covered by thick mud, rocks, and uprooted trees.

Scores of rescue personnel were searching through a river around the Anai Valley Waterfall area in Tanah Datar district where tons of mud, rocks and trees were left from flash floods.

Rescuers were focused on finding four people from a group of seven that were swept away with their cars. Three other bodies were pulled out on Monday, said Abdul Malik, who heads the Search and Rescue Office in Padang, the provincial capital.

“With many missing and some remote areas still unreachable, the death toll was likely to rise,” Malik said.

Heavy rains cause frequent landslides and flash floods in Indonesia, an archipelago nation of more than 17,000 islands where millions of people live in mountainous areas or near floodplains.

The weekend disaster came just two months after heavy rains triggered flash floods and a landslide in West Sumatra, killing at least 26 people and leaving 11 others missing.

A surprise eruption of Mount Marapi late last year killed 23 climbers. The mountain’s sudden eruptions are difficult to predict because the source is shallow and near the peak, according to Indonesia’s Center for Volcanology and Geological Disaster Mitigation.

Marapi has been active since an eruption in January 2024 that caused no casualties. It is among more than 120 active volcanoes in Indonesia. The country is prone to seismic upheaval because of its location on the Pacific “Ring of Fire,” an arc of volcanoes and fault lines encircling the Pacific Basin.

Associated Press writer Niniek Karmini in Jakarta, Indonesia contributed to this report.

People inspect the damage by a flash flood in Agam, West Sumatra,Indonesia, Tuesday, May 14, 2024. Rescuers on Tuesday searched in rivers and the rubble of devastated villages for bodies, and whenever possible, survivors of flash floods that hit Indonesia's Sumatra Island over the weekend. (AP Photo/ Fachri Hamzah)

People inspect the damage by a flash flood in Agam, West Sumatra, Indonesia, Tuesday, May 14, 2024. Rescuers on Tuesday searched in rivers and the rubble of devastated villages for bodies, and whenever possible, survivors of flash floods that hit Indonesia's Sumatra Island over the weekend. (AP Photo/Fachri Hamzah)

People inspect the damage by a flash flood in Agam, West Sumatra, Indonesia, Tuesday, May 14, 2024. Rescuers on Tuesday searched in rivers and the rubble of devastated villages for bodies, and whenever possible, survivors of flash floods that hit Indonesia's Sumatra Island over the weekend. (AP Photo/Sutan Malik Kayo)

People inspect the damage by a flash flood in Agam, West Sumatra,Indonesia, Tuesday, May 14, 2024. Rescuers on Tuesday searched in rivers and the rubble of devastated villages for bodies, and whenever possible, survivors of flash floods that hit Indonesia's Sumatra Island over the weekend. (AP Photo/Sutan Malik Kayo)

This drone photo shows the damage at a village affected by a flash flood in Agam, West Sumatra, Indonesia, Tuesday, May 14, 2024. Rescuers on Tuesday searched in rivers and the rubble of devastated villages for bodies, and whenever possible, survivors of flash floods that hit Indonesia's Sumatra Island over the weekend. (AP Photo/Sutan Malik Kayo)

This drone photo shows the damage at a village affected by a flash flood in Agam, West Sumatra, Indonesia, Tuesday, May 14, 2024. Rescuers on Tuesday searched in rivers and the rubble of devastated villages for bodies, and whenever possible, survivors of flash floods that hit Indonesia's Sumatra Island over the weekend. (AP Photo/Sutan Malik Kayo)

People examine the damage at an area badly affected by a flash flood in Tanah Datar, West Sumatra, Indonesia, Monday, May 13, 2024. Heavy rains and torrents of cold lava and mud flowing down a volcano's slopes on Indonesia's Sumatra island triggered flash floods causing a number of people dead and missing, officials said Sunday. (AP Photo/Ali Nayaka)

People inspect buildings damaged by a flash flood in Agam, West Sumatra, Indonesia, Monday, May 13, 2024. Rescuers recovered more bodies Monday after monsoon rains triggered flash floods on Indonesia's Sumatra Island, bringing down torrents of cold lava and mud, leaving a number of people killed and missing. (AP Photo/Fachri Hamzah)

A man makes his way among the rubble near the wreckage of a car at a village affected by a flash flood in Agam, West Sumatra, Indonesia, Monday, May 13, 2024. Rescuers recovered more bodies Monday after monsoon rains triggered flash floods on Indonesia's Sumatra Island, bringing down torrents of cold lava and mud, leaving a number of people killed and missing. (AP Photo/Fachri Hamzah)

A man walks among the rubble near a house damaged by a flash flood in Agam, West Sumatra, Indonesia, Monday, May 13, 2024. Rescuers recovered more bodies Monday after monsoon rains triggered flash floods on Indonesia's Sumatra Island, bringing down torrents of cold lava and mud, leaving a number of people killed and missing. (AP Photo/Fachri Hamzah)

Rescuers search for victims of a flash flood in Tanah Datar, West Sumatra, Indonesia, Monday, May 13, 2024. Heavy rains and torrents of cold lava and mud flowing down a volcano's slopes on Indonesia's Sumatra island triggered flash floods causing a number of people dead and missing, officials said Sunday. (AP Photo/Ali Nayaka)

This drone photo shows the damage at a village affected by a flash flood in Tanah Datar, West Sumatra, Indonesia, Monday, May 13, 2024. Heavy rains and torrents of cold lava and mud flowing down a volcano's slopes on Indonesia's Sumatra island triggered flash floods causing a number of people dead and missing, officials said Sunday. (AP Photo/Ali Nayaka)

Rescuers carry the body of a victim of a flash flood in Tanah Datar, West Sumatra, Indonesia, Monday, May 13, 2024. Heavy rains and torrents of cold lava and mud flowing down a volcano's slopes on Indonesia's Sumatra island triggered flash floods causing a number of people dead and missing, officials said Sunday. (AP Photo/Ali Nayaka)