Banned in France, the use of a surrogate mother, also called surrogacy, is currently debated. The subject has never fascinated public opinion so much as since the law on marriage for all. Do we really know what surrogacy is? Focus on the surrogate mother.

To help couples in difficulty, there are in many countries (such as the United States or Canada), women ready to “rent” their uterus for 9 months to accommodate the child resulting from in vitro fertilization of the gametes of the baby. couple, they are gestational surrogates. These women are therefore not genetically linked to the child. They are content to carry the embryo and then the fetus throughout its development and then hand it over to its “genetic” parents at birth.

However, there is another case in which fertilization directly concerns the surrogate mother’s egg. It is therefore inseminated with the father’s sperm and is genetically linked to the child. These two cases depend directly on the laws in force in the various countries authorizing these practices.

If these practices may shock or cause incomprehension among many French people, it is also important to remember that this is most often the last step in a long process for these couples with a strong desire for children and living in a situation of infertility or inability to procreate. This term surrogacy therefore corresponds to a medical technique of assisted procreation in all countries authorizing it.

According to French law, it is strictly forbidden to use such a method (whether paid or not) to bring a child into the world. This very strict legislation however leads to abuses and a very important procreative tourism in countries authorizing surrogacy (surrogacy).

Whether couples are experiencing infertility or are gay, more and more are going abroad to hire a surrogate mother. These trips can thus put an end to a situation which seems to them to be hopeless in France. Against remuneration and the assumption of all medical care, the surrogate mother undertakes to bear their unborn child and to offer them the possibility of becoming parents.

Very much criticized, surrogacy poses as many problems on the ethical level and respect for the woman’s body, as on the legal level with a still unclear status with regard to the infant. How to recognize a filiation? What nationality to grant him? The questions are numerous and are the subject of much debate.

Children born to surrogate mothers have great difficulty in gaining recognition in France. The procedures are long and difficult and the parents have to fight to try to establish a precise filiation. Worse, it is often difficult to obtain French birth certificates and many of these children, born to a foreign surrogate mother, do not obtain French nationality or only after long months, even years.

This difficult situation for these children deprived of recognition could be improved in the coming months since France and its government seem determined to take matters into their own hands and to legislate on this problem.

To those who only evoke a commodification of the female body and that of infants, couples who have had recourse to this surrogacy technique respond on the contrary that it is above all a process full of love. It is not a question for them of “buying” a child but of conceiving it and preparing its arrival for months or years. They certainly have to spend a lot of time and money, but also open up to others and meet a woman who will be an integral part of their new life. They can, if they wish, forge strong bonds for the future. Indeed, in most cases, genetic parents, children and surrogate mother stay in contact and exchange regularly during the years following birth.

If the surrogate mother is, at first glance, a solution to be provided to all couples deprived of the opportunity to have children, it nevertheless raises many questions. What to think of this commodification of the female body? How to supervise this practice and avoid dangerous drifts? What is the impact on the child and his future life? So many questions that French society will have to resolve in order to draw conclusions and finally decide the fate of surrogacy.