“Babies are not goods to be ordered”

Clitheroe MP Jonathan Hinder has spoken out strongly against the loosening of surrogacy regulations, suggested by a parliamentary petition.

The call - by Adam Fisby - is that the law should change so intended parents in surrogacy arrangements are recognised as their child’s legal parents from birth. He said: “Families should not have to go through months of court proceedings and social worker visits to be recognised as the parents of a child they planned and love.”

The petition has attracted more than 113,000 signatures.

Mr Hinder spoke in Parliament on Tuesday against the proposed changes stating: “Babies are not goods to be ordered. Pregnant women are not factories”.

The Government has since decided to reject the petition.

Pendle and Clitheroe MP Jonathan Hinder.

placeholder image — Pendle and Clitheroe MP Jonathan Hinder.

What did Jonathan Hinder say?

Speaking in Parliament, Mr Hinder said: “However good the intentions of those bringing forward this petition for affected parents are, and I do not question them, any loosening of the surrogacy laws would be a serious mistake.”

He added: “Pregnant women are not factories, and babies are not goods to be ordered. I believe this is crossing an ethical line, where human life is treated as a business transaction. The child must have the right to know where it has come from and how it came to be in this world. When a newborn is handed over not because of a tragedy, but because that separation was arranged before the child was even conceived, that child has become a commodity, which it should never be.

“These children are removed from their birth mothers, and it is simply wrong to treat children in this way. Implementing the demands of the petition would seal the commodification of mothers and babies through surrogacy, and we need only look at the global surrogacy industry to see where that leads: wealthy couples exploiting desperate women; international human trafficking rings; and exportation and erasure. That is the end destination when we start from the principles implied in the petition.”