EWTN News explains: Why does the Catholic Church oppose surrogacy?
The Catholic Church condemns surrogacy as contrary to marriage unity and human dignity, citing the 1987 Donum Vitae instruction. A Texas case involving surrogate McKenna West and her baby Gabriel illustrates the Church’s concerns about commercial surrogacy and potential abortion of fetuses with anomalies. Catholic bioethicists Joseph Meaney and Joe Zalot explain that surrogacy reduces the surrogate’s role and violates the child’s right to be raised by its parents. Pope Francis addressed surrogacy as “deplorable” in a 2024 speech, urging an international ban on the practice.
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The Catholic Church opposes surrogacy because it views the practice as contrary to marriage, human dignity, and the child’s right to be conceived, carried, born, and raised by his or her own parents. Church officials also object to the commercial treatment of women and children and to contractual provisions that may require abortion after a prenatal diagnosis.
The article highlights the case of McKenna West, a surrogate who traveled to Texas after the child’s biological parents allegedly requested an abortion because the baby had a treatable heart condition.
West gave birth to the baby, whom she named Gabriel, and was subsequently sued by the couple for allegedly violating the surrogacy contract. The contract reportedly included a provision allowing the intended parents to request an abortion if fetal abnormalities were detected.
The case is presented as an example of the conflicts that can arise when pregnancy, parental rights, medical decisions, and contractual obligations are separated among different people.
Joseph Meaney of the National Catholic Bioethics Center described surrogacy as an arrangement in which a woman carries a child for another couple or individual with the intention of transferring the child to them after birth.
The article distinguishes between traditional surrogacy, in which the surrogate is also the child’s biological mother, and gestational surrogacy, in which in vitro fertilization is used with donor gametes or genetic material from the intended parents.
The Church’s position is rooted in the 1987 Vatican instruction Donum Vitae, which describes surrogate motherhood as contrary to “the unity of marriage” and “the dignity of the procreation of the human person.”
According to the document, surrogacy separates the physical, psychological, and moral dimensions of parenthood. It also fails, in the Church’s view, to respect maternal love, marital fidelity, responsible parenthood, and the child’s relationship with his or her own parents.
Joe Zalot, also of the National Catholic Bioethics Center, said commercial surrogacy can reduce the surrogate to a subordinate role in relation to the genetic or intended parents.
The article argues that surrogacy contracts can also treat the child as subject to contractual terms, particularly when they include provisions requiring or encouraging abortion after the discovery of a disability or medical condition.
The Church therefore regards the practice as harmful to the dignity of both the surrogate and the child, rather than merely as a medical or legal arrangement.
The Church’s objection extends beyond arrangements involving payment. In a 2025 essay, Meaney argued that so-called altruistic surrogacy retains many of the ethical problems associated with commercial surrogacy, even when the surrogate receives no financial compensation.
Although women who volunteer as surrogates may act from generosity or compassion, the Church maintains that the arrangement still separates pregnancy and motherhood from the marital and familial context in which procreation should occur.
The article also refers to the biblical account of Sarai, Hagar, and Abram in Genesis as an example that the Church interprets as a warning about the consequences of using a surrogate arrangement.
Pope Francis called surrogacy “deplorable” in a January 2024 address to the Holy See’s diplomatic corps. He described it as a grave violation of the dignity of women and children and expressed support for an international prohibition.
In the United States, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ ethical directives for Catholic health care prohibit Catholic medical institutions from participating in surrogacy arrangements.
The bishops cite the dignity of the child and marriage, as well as the distinctive relationship between mother and child.
The article states that surrogacy is widely legal in the United States. Louisiana is identified as the only state that completely bans commercial surrogacy, while more than a dozen states broadly permit it and many others are generally permissive.
Meaney summarized the Church’s position by distinguishing between what technology makes possible and what morality permits. He said reproductive capacity should be directed toward bringing new life into the world rather than being placed within a commercial contract with strangers.
Catholic doctrine condemns surrogacy as violating human dignity
Yes. The Catholic Church teaches that surrogacy is morally illicit because it violates the dignity of both the child and the woman, and it undermines the unity of marriage and the proper meaning of human procreation.
The Church teaches that a child is a person, not a product or a possession. The child’s legitimate right to a human origin must not be confused with an alleged “right to a child.”
Surrogacy can treat the child as an object of an agreement, separating genetic, gestational, and intended parenthood. Pope Francis summarized the principle: “A child is always a gift and never the basis of a commercial contract.”
Surrogacy also risks reducing the woman to a means for satisfying another person’s desire. Dignitas Infinita states that this is contrary to her right to be recognized “always individually and never as an instrument for another,” whether she is coerced or freely consents.
The Church is especially concerned about economic exploitation, since commercial arrangements can take advantage of women in material poverty.
Catholic teaching holds that procreation belongs within the personal and exclusive communion of husband and wife. Medical assistance may be legitimate when it assists the conjugal act, but not when it replaces it or introduces third-party procreation.
The 1987 instruction Donum vitae therefore states that surrogate motherhood is contrary to “the unity of marriage and to the dignity of the procreation of the human person.” It also objects to separating the physical, psychological, and moral dimensions of parenthood.
The teaching applies not only to commercial surrogacy. Even when no money is exchanged, the fundamental problem remains: the child is intentionally conceived and gestated under an arrangement requiring separation from the woman who bears the child, while parenthood is divided among different parties.
For Catholic health-care institutions, participation in surrogate-motherhood contracts or arrangements is explicitly not permitted; commercialization is additionally condemned because it denigrates women, particularly the poor.
Thus, the Church’s position is not based merely on opposition to technology or on denying the genuine suffering caused by infertility. It is grounded in the conviction that children are gifts, women must never be used as instruments, and human procreation must respect marriage, bodily integrity, and the child’s personal dignity.