Several developing nations have recently taken steps to ban foreign surrogacy. These bans have led to a boom in foreign surrogacy in Canada. This boom, and the consequences of it, have brought the debate about surrogacy to the forefront of Canadian politics.

We must take this opportunity to make a strong statement against surrogacy in Canada!

The practice of surrogacy is offensive to human dignity and robs children of a natural family. Please sign this petition to protect Canadian women and children from this dangerous practice.

Surrogacy arrangements in Canada are loosely tracked and regulated, so we don’t know exactly how many foreign and domestic surrogacies happen each year. However, several recent reports have suggested a boom in the industry over recent years.

Mainstream media outlets in Canada try to highlight stories that place surrogacy in a positive light, but we must not forget the multitude of moral and practical problems with surrogacy. For one thing, surrogacy complicates and multiplies parental roles by introducing a gestational mother—and sometimes a disassociated mother by egg donation or father by sperm donation. These fractured relationships are “profoundly unfair and dehumanizing for the children caught in the web of the process.”

As a woman who was conceived by sperm donation explains, “My existence owed almost nothing to the serendipitous nature of normal human reproduction, where babies are the natural progression of mutually fulfilling adult relationships, but rather represented a verbal contract, a financial transaction and a cold, clinical harnessing of medical technology."

Furthermore, surrogacy places financially vulnerable women at risk of exploitation. Although the law in Canada technically only allows for the reimbursement of expenses related to the surrogate's pregnancy, there are currently no regulations regarding what expenses are included under this umbrella. Indeed, “intended parents and women acting as surrogates are operating in a grey zone with respect to expenses.”

In this petition, we ask Canadian officials to better regulate the surrogacy industry, and we further encourage them to take steps towards an official ban on all surrogacy arrangements in Canada.

This petition will be submitted to Health Canada, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, and the leaders of Canada’s parliamentary parties.

---

Further resources:

• Assisted Human Reproduction Act: 

http://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/regulations/SOR-2007-137/index.html

• Surrogacy in Canada is cause for concern:  

http://www.therecord.com/opinion-story/6899076-why-surrogacy-in-canada-is-a-cause-for-concern/

• The moral problems with surrogacy: 

http://www.thebostonpilot.com/opinion/article.asp?ID=177670

• Surrogacy boom in Canada: 

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/surrogate-baby-foreign-parents-1.3734179