Kontakt 2024, 26(3):300-308 | DOI: 10.32725/kont.2024.040

The Czech legislation on surrogacy and its comparison with foreign standardsSociální vědy ve zdraví - přehledový článek

Šárka Špeciánová^{1, 2}

¹ Charles University, Faculty of Social Sciences, Prague 1, Czech Republic

² Charles University, First Faculty of Medicine, Institute of Public Health and Medical Law, Prague 2, Czech Republic

Members of the Czech Parliament submitted the Amendment to the Civil Code and the Criminal Code that considers surrogacy as a specific form of human trafficking addressing the prohibited commercialization of the human body. The amendment aims to protect women, whose social status is often exploited, and children, who are reduced to commodities. The proposed changes seek to prevent the abuse of international surrogacy and reproductive tourism and, as a result, prohibit surrogacy even in an altruistic form between close relatives. Current Czech legislation tolerates surrogacy. Many social and ethical questions associated with this phenomenon deserve a society-wide discussion. Foreign legislation oscillates from clearly regulated conditions for surrogacy, through regulations that tolerate surrogacy without further regulation, to the prohibition of this specific phenomenon. This paper discusses the legislative regulation of surrogate motherhood in the Czech Republic (CR), as it compares with foreign regulation, and focuses on parameters used to compare different legal systems. Detailed national legislation, but especially uniform international rules can contribute to the protection from potential abuse caused by surrogacy. While altruistic surrogacy can be morally acceptable, commercial surrogacy, especially in an international context, can lead to the aforementioned abuses.

Klíčová slova: Altruistic and commercial surrogacy; Child status; Fertility tourism; Intending parents; Inter-country surrogacy; Surrogacy

Granty a financováni:

This output was created as part of the Specific University Research project No. 260 728.

Střet zájmů:

The author has no conflict of interest to declare.

Vloženo: 29. listopad 2023; Revidováno: 4. červen 2024; Přijato: 26. srpen 2024; Zveřejněno online: 6. září 2024; Zveřejněno: 24. září 2024  Zobrazit citaci