"Pope Francis Advocates Global Ban on Surrogacy as 'Deplorable' Practice"

Pope Francis condemned surrogacy as a "deplorable" practice that turns a child into "an object of trafficking," calling for a worldwide ban on the practice and emphasizing that a child should never be the basis of a commercial contract. He highlighted the exploitation of surrogate mothers' financial circumstances and included surrogacy in his annual speech to the diplomat corps, addressing conflicts and divisions threatening world peace, such as the wars in Gaza and Ukraine.