Should Sweden allow surrogate motherhood?
Sweden's conservative opposition Moderate Party has spoken out in favour of allowing altruistic surrogate motherhood, for which the woman who gives birth to a child receives no money. Commentators engage in an ethical debate - and reach very different conclusions.
A way to have planned children
Dagens Nyheter welcomes the opposition leader's initiative:
“Surrogate motherhood is ultimately about a woman's right to self-determination. The fact that certain people may have objections of an ethical or any other nature shouldn't prevent a woman who wishes to bear a child for other people from doing so. More people who are loved and wanted should be born into this world. Surrogate motherhood opens up the opportunity for example for male homosexual couples and women with damaged wombs to experience the joys of parenting. Such children do not come into this world unplanned but are usually very much wanted and welcome.”
Brave new world
Not everything that is progressive is a positive development, Expressen warns:
“Of course, in the most progressive country in the world the right to biological children can't be thwarted by bagatelles like missing partners or dysfunctional wombs. After all, eggs can be bought and wombs can be borrowed or rented out. ... Sooner or later, medical progress in combination with the idea of having children as a right will lead to the legalisation of surrogate motherhood. And of course it's only a matter of time before artificial wombs make pregnancy superfluous altogether. At least for those who can pay the price it will then be possible to sidestep the trials and tribulations of pregnancy. Oh brave new world. ... Perhaps then people will see that the bond established between mother and child during pregnancy is more complex and meaningful than some may think.”