Exploitation and Trafficking in Global Surrogacy
The Surrogacy and Modern Family Collective and our associated brands do not condone exploitation or trafficking in any circumstance and are passionate about our role in eradicating exploitation and trafficking when it occurs in relation to surrogacy, assisted reproduction and modern family building
1) Exploitation and Trafficking Definitions
1a) We define exploitation as the action or fact of treating someone unfairly in order to benefit from them
1b) We define trafficking as the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of people through force, fraud or deception, with the aim of exploiting them for profit
2) The Human Rights Act
In line with the 1998 Human Rights Act all people have the right to freedom from harm and we consider all forms of exploitation including coercion, financial manipulation, emotional manipulation, inter-familiar coercion, cultural coercion and community coercion to be acts of harm
We consider it an offence for anybody to recruit, transport, transfer, harbour or be in receipt of people through force, fraud or deception, with the aim of exploiting them for profit
Our primary concern is always for the safety, protection, care and wellbeing of people involved in surrogacy, gamete donation and assisted reproduction
3) Addressing Coercion
Nobody with a uterus should ever feel that they have to offer themselves to the act of surrogacy and nobody with sex cells or gametes should ever feel that they have to donate, share or sell their reproductive cells for the benefit or profit of another person, company or service These acts should only be entered into by choice and practiced with dignity, respect and support The decision to become a surrogate or donate reproductive cells resides solely with the person with a uterus or the cell donor and should be made in line with the support of their (where relevant) partner, husband, wife and (where relevant) their children, immediate family and qualified health care professionals
We do not condone any form of coercion, which is the act of persuading a person to do something against their will
We believe that all clinics, fertility centres, maternity units and health care professionals have a duty of care to ensure that surrogacy is only ever entered into by choice and that all surrogates and reproductive cell donors globally should be assessed for their mental, physical, emotional, endocrinological and general health
We refuse to work in any way with any partners who operate outside of these standards and all of our work internationally is assessed in line with the standards set by the Human Fertilization and Embryology Association in the United Kingdom
4) Commercial Surrogacy and Altruistic Surrogacy
We recognise that some countries operate under laws that permit the commercial practice of surrogacy and some countries operate under laws that only permit altruistic practices of surrogacy Please see our position statement on the different practices for more information on our stance towards both We are also aware that surrogacy and assisted reproduction is illegal in some countries Whilst we support the notion that ethical surrogacy, assisted reproduction and modern family building should be options available in all countries, we also encourage people to follow the laws of their country to protect their own safety and security Our work utilises a human rights framework to protect all of our clients, members and surrogates and where country laws limit the human rights of any individual, we actively support efforts for the law to be amended to uphold these rights
Wherever we witness or hear of exploitation and trafficking incidents related to the acts of surrogacy, assisted reproduction and modern family building we act to ensure that we protect the people affected by such incidents through our work and the standards we uphold in the reproductive health industry Central to our core values and theory of change is the need for us to all act together to eradicate all forms of exploitation and trafficking related to reproductive health.
5) What is the cause of exploitation and trafficking?
Many attempts to stop exploitation and trafficking in relation to surrogacy are framed as though surrogacy is the problem There are many campaign groups active across the world to stop surrogacy. We want to make it extremely clear that the cause of surrogacy exploitation and trafficking is not surrogacy itself Exploitation and trafficking are caused due to a supply and demand for people wishing to exploit and traffic people This demand is still prevalent in the world, there are people who are demanding cheap, coerced access to people with a uterus to undergo surrogacy outside of choice, control and through means of force It is this demand, and the subsequent supply of women to fulfil this demand that has to stop, not surrogacy
We do not believe that the demand for exploitation and trafficking is the same as the demand for ethical, choice based, supported, and chosen surrogacy pathways and
understanding the difference is important To end surrogacy exploitation and trafficking, we do not have to end surrogacy, we have to end exploitation and trafficking
Our work models the highest standards of ethical modern family building and we work with surrogates who are clinically, emotionally and physically choosing to undertake the act of surrogacy Through our work we aim to both change the landscape for surrogacy and modern family building and also set the standard for surrogacy in countries for whom a low standard has been established through bad practice Eradicating exploitation in surrogacy is built into our theory of change and is a fundamental goal of our work We do not believe that this is the same as ending surrogacy altogether
Summary Position Statement
The Surrogacy and Modern Family Collective and our associated brands do not condone exploitation or trafficking in any circumstance and are passionate about our role in eradicating exploitation and trafficking when it occurs in relation to surrogacy, assisted reproduction and modern family building
Wherever we witness or hear of exploitation and trafficking incidents related to the acts of surrogacy, assisted reproduction and modern family building we act to ensure that we protect the people affected by such incidents through our work and the standards we uphold in the reproductive health industry
Through our work we aim to both change the landscape for surrogacy and modern family building and also set the standard for surrogacy in countries for whom a low standard has been established through bad practice Eradicating exploitation in surrogacy is built into our theory of change and is a fundamental goal of our work. We do not believe that this is the same as ending surrogacy altogether