On March 20, 2024, the Permanent Observer Mission of the Holy See to the United Nations and ADF International organized the conference “Too High a Cost: End Surrogacy Now Preventing the Exploitation and Commodification of Women and Children,” during the “68th Session of the Commission on the Status of Women,” one of the UN’s major annual events at the United Nations Headquarters in NYC.
Giulia Bovassi, Chair Assistant Researcher, PhD Candidate at the Faculty of Bioethics of the Pontifical Atheneaum Regina Apostolorum (Rome), and Assistant Professor at Anhauac University, Mexico, was one of the speakers together with H.E. Archbishop Gabriele Caccia, Apostolic Nuncio and Permanent Observer of the Holy See to the United Nations, Olivia Maurel, Casablanca Declaration Spokesperson, born via surrogacy, Herveline Urcun, Observatoire de la Procréation Assistée, Bernard Garcia-Larrain, Ph.D., International Advocacy Officer, Juristes pour l’Enfance, and Giorgio Mazzoli, Director of UN Advocacy, ADF International (moderator).
Giulia Bovassi opened her talk with a fundamental question: ‘where is the mother?’ continuing with a reflection in which she brought, first of all, the problem of corporeity that, with surrogacy, becomes a biological resource available and indifferent to the person. We face a devaluation of woman that is reduced to a means of profit, a tool to achieve the best possible product as agreed upon and established. The child, from a subject of right becomes an object of right and desire, at the center of this global biobusiness. She also addressed other aspects, concluding with a reflection on the power of biotechnology and the nature of law, bringing arguments in support of the universal crime of surrogacy, the goal of the conference.