The South Dakota Catholic Conference supports the passage of House Bill 1096, which would ban the practice of commercial surrogacy. The Church expresses profound love for couples who long for the gift of a child, and calls on all who suffer to unite themselves more closely with the loving Creator in whose image all persons are made. However, commercial surrogacy commodifies human persons, treating them as objects of trade, rather than as gifts from God. It deliberately fractures mother-child relationships, severs the creation of new life from its proper place in the natural moral order, and may facilitate eugenic tendencies in the creation of new life. It often results in the destruction of human embryos. HB 1096 recognizes that all life is a sacred gift from God to be received with love, rather than manipulated or made an object of commerce.
Categories: 2020 Session
