Surrogate Pregnancy in Belgium : political divergences transcribed in initiative report

 
The commission for institutional affaires in the Belgian Senate took the initiative one year ago to establish an initiative report on surrogate pregnancy practices.
The Senate acknowledged receiving the commission’s work on Friday December 11, 2015, which gives a situational analysis and outlines the different parties’ positions.
Belgian law neither forbids, nor authorizes the practice of surrogate motherhood. The practice is “tolerated” in 4 fertility centers: a hundred children have been born by surrogacy in the past 20 years.
Although all parties reject the principle of surrogacy in exchange for commercial remuneration, the debate has not been resolved over the possible guidelines for this practice.
This report was sent to the Prime Minister and the president of the House of Representatives as are all legislative initiative reports.
Since 2014, the Belgian Senate no longer has authority for initiative legislation, which remains the sole prerogative of the House of Representatives (equivalent to the French National Assembly)
This work appears while the European Parliament has just condemned the practice of surrogate gestation under all forms. Therefore the Chamber must decide if it is appropriate to address the issue.