**GPA: A coalition of states brings to the UN the call for a global moratorium towards abolition**

Context

We had followed the logic of the commercialization of the human body within the framework of the biotech-ethics-frontier thread. A decisive step has just been taken on the international stage: a coalition of States presented a joint declaration to the United Nations Human Rights Council calling for a global moratorium on surrogacy (GPA), claimed as the first step toward its universal abolition.

Facts

During a recent session of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, around twenty States jointly presented a declaration calling for an international moratorium on commercial surrogacy, with the declared objective of its abolition. France is among the signatories, in line with the position of the French National Consultative Ethics Committee (CCNE) and the French legislator's consistent refusal to authorize any form of surrogacy on national territory.

The declaration is notably based on the report of the UN Special Rapporteur on trafficking in persons (2018), which had already qualified certain forms of surrogacy as human trafficking.

Doctrinal Analysis

The social doctrine of the Church has been clear since 1987. The instruction Donum Vitae (CDF, II.A.3) condemns surrogate motherhood as "contrary to the unity of marriage and to the dignity of procreation." The Declaration Dignitas Infinita by the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith (April 2024, n. 51) reiterates this condemnation, qualifying surrogacy as a "gravely unjust practice" that "violates the dignity of the woman and the child." It explicitly calls for a universal ban.

This convergence between the Magisterium and natural reason—accessible to States of very diverse legal and cultural traditions—illustrates what the Church calls the natural moral law: a norm that any upright conscience can recognize, independently of any religious confession (cf. Gaudium et Spes, n. 16: "Deep within his conscience, man discovers a law which he has not laid upon himself").

Stakes for the Church and the Faithful

For Catholics engaged in bioethics, this vote at the UN is an encouraging sign that the arguments of natural law—the inalienable dignity of women and children, the rejection of the commodification of the body—are audible beyond confessional borders. It confirms that Catholic positions are not confined to a community bubble but can underpin lasting international political convergences.

Critical Reading and Blind Spots

A moratorium is not an abolition. Past bioethical struggles show that moratoriums can turn into de facto tolerances when political follow-up is lacking. Furthermore, the declaration targets only commercial surrogacy, leaving open the question of so-called altruistic surrogacy—a loophole into which pro-surrogacy lobbying will inevitably rush. The signatory States must now convert this political signal into binding law, which requires sustained and coordinated mobilization.

To Reflect and Act Upon

"The body is not for sexual immorality; it is for the Lord" (1 Cor 6:13). A woman’s body is not a resource to be rented, nor is a child’s body an object to be ordered. May Catholics support associations documenting the realities of surrogacy and challenge their representatives to ensure that the moratorium becomes, as soon as possible, a binding international norm.