Surrogacy consists of planning the permanent separation of a newborn baby from its mother immediately after birth. Depending on the country and parents\u00b4 intention, in many cases this also means that the baby will never see his or her mother again or even come to know his or her identity. Many people see this practice as a valid option for starting a family without being at all aware of the health risks involved. This is a sad memory of what happened at the beginning of the millenium after the adoption boom in Eastern European countries. It eventually became clear that almost half of those children had serious behavioural problems and neurodevelopmental and psychiatric disorders related to exposure to alcohol in the womb; the so-called foetal alcohol syndrome, which is highly disabling. A very illustrative example of how the uterine environment can condition health.<\/p>\n
What we experience in the womb leaves a decisive imprint that conditions our physical and mental health for life, i.e. the environment to which we are exposed, the time and manner of our birth, the care we receive in our first months of life. It is scientifically supported that foetal development is conditioned by maternal stress during gestation, exposure to toxic substances or alcohol consumption, as explained by the DOHaD (Developmental Origins of Health and Disease) theory. The applications of this research are gathered in recommendations such as those expressed within the care guidelines of the WHO. It is very striking how, in the case of surrogacy, the non-compliance with these recommendations is planned; and, extremely worrying how advocates systematically hide the possible consequences, in many cases driven by a clear profit motive, and carry out a practice that has been described as trafficking and buying and selling of human beings by the UN rapporteur.<\/p>\n
Surrogacy entails health risks for everyone involved: the women who donate the eggs, the surrogate mothers, the babies conceived through surrogacy, the other children of those mothers, as well as for the people who will be raising the babies. Surrogacy is a high-risk pregnancy, with a higher number of serious obstetric complications. Births are often premature and\/or scheduled for non-medical reasons. Mother-baby separation is planned for immediately after birth, as well as the forfeiture of breastfeeding. Each of these perinatal neurobiological manipulations increases the risk of experiencing lifelong pathologies ranging from neurodevelopmental disorders and autism spectrum disorders to attachment disorders, anxiety, depression or other disorders that may appear even in adulthood. It also increases the risk of suffering metabolic diseases and disorders such as asthma, obesity, diabetes and some types of cancer. \u00a0In addition, the difficult identity bewilderment which is already being made visible by the daughters of donors, who are already demanding that egg and sperm donations in our country cease to be anonymous.<\/p>\n
We human beings are born expecting to meet our mother. The baby in the womb has a very clear idea of who its mother is, no matter how much the disassociation is promoted from outside with the argument that \u2018it is not genetically theirs\u2019. Surrogacy is an orphanhood (equivalent to losing your mother during childbirth) planned by the same people who defend their right to be mothers or fathers at all costs. In adoption, we seek to compensate for maternal abandonment by adopting the baby; in surrogacy, we do the opposite, leaving the baby in the most unprotected position, as it ends up in the hands of those who planned this damage with no greater filter than their purchasing power. Surrogacy therefore violates the \u2018primum non nocere\u2019: it is a scenario of programmed harm to a newborn with short, medium and long term consequences. An entire neurobiological transformation designed to enable mothers to bond with and protect their babies is hindered. The innocuousness of mother-baby separation has not been proven. \u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n For obvious reasons, there are hardly any follow-up studies on surrogacy. Advocates always refer to those carried out by Professor Susan Golombok in the UK: a single follow-up study of 44 babies up to adolescence. All have been cared for under the NHS, the excellent public health system; they have been able to meet their mother and most maintain some contact with her and their families. The conclusions of Golombok’s studies are in no way translatable to the situation of babies born in poor countries, in conditions of blatant reproductive exploitation, to mothers exposed to various forms of violence, and whom they will never ever get to know.<\/p>\n In our country some of these minors are already being treated by child psychiatrists and psychologists, which is not strange given all that has been explained above. I am sadly convinced that in time there will be much more evidence about the consequences of this practice, whose universal abolition is advocated by the Casablanca Declaration endorsed by experts from all over the world. Babies are not to be sold, bought nor given away.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Ibone Olza<\/p>\n Child psychiatrist and writer.<\/p>\n