Ethical Risks and Legal Regulations of Surrogacy: from the Perspective of Recent Unethical Incidents of Surrogacy Abroad

LI Tinghui

Abstract: Surrogacy has become a global phenomenon. Recent unethical incidents of surrogacy abroad reflect the ethical risks of surrogacy. Surrogacy mainly causes three ethical risks: first, it endangers the human dignity of the surrogate mother and child; second, it endangers good customs in terms of the family’s ethical and moral order; third, it is not in line with virtues in terms of protecting the disadvantaged children in surrogacy. The existence of ethical risks in surrogacy requires a completely prohibitive stance at the legal regulatory level. The reasons given by surrogacy supporters for denying the ethical risks are not convincing. Their recognition of the rationality of surrogacy is also not tenable. With the legal stance of complete prohibition, specific legal strategies include clarifying the legal principle of prohibiting surrogacy, increasing penalties for surrogacy, and implementing the principle of maximizing the interests of the children.

Keywords: surrogacy · ethical risks · human dignity · good customs · virtues · legal regulation