Common Anthropological Concerns and Different Answers: The Politics of Assisted Reproductive Technologies in Catholicism, Islam, and Judaism

The dramatic advances in the domain of assisted reproductive technologies (ART) have become a terrain of confrontation between religious authorities and secular political elites committed to liberalizing national laws. Through their engagement in bioethical debates, religious leaders have not only sustained religious prescriptions but have also contributed to public discussions on the future of biotechnologies and to define the limits of technological innovations applied to human reproduction. One of the most controversial issues in biosciences is surrogacy, a practice whereby a woman (surrogate mother) becomes pregnant to give her child to somebody else (intended parents) after birth. Surrogacy challenges traditional conceptions of motherhood, kinship, and the family. Although this practice can promote reproductive justice by weakening the biogenetic ties for family formation and opening parenthood to previously excluded people, it has also engendered new forms of exploitation of women, notably in poverty-stricken countries. In consideration of the questions at stake, religious authorities have not hesitated to intervene in the public debates on this matter and to ask for politicians to introduce policy measures consistent with religious prescriptions. Through the study of doctrinal documents and public statements of religious leaders as well as policy documents related to the regulation of surrogacy, this paper compares the doctrinal stances of the Roman Catholic Church, Muslim scholars, and Jewish thinkers on surrogacy. It also assesses if the policy measures implemented by national governments respected the prescriptions of the religious traditions taken into consideration. This paper shows that Roman Catholicism, Islam, and Judaism diverge on the ethical arguments that they propose to justify the prohibition of surrogacy, the conception of women’s freedom of choice on reproductive matters, and the role played by science in human reproduction, although they share common concerns for the welfare of women and the well-being of the child. As far as policy measures are concerned, the paper highlights a quite variegated panorama, as national governments implemented policy measures only partly consistent with religious prescriptions. The paper aims to present a comparative perspective on the current religious understandings of surrogacy, without neglecting the internal dissenting voices in religious traditions, to highlight the ethical principles that inspire the positions of Catholicism, Islam, and Judaism on the advances in ART. It also intends to assess whether and to what extent religious authorities can still influence national policies on highly controversial bioethical questions related to human reproduction.