Surrogacy agreements and Spanish law: Elements for a new legal proposal

Abstract

The surrogacy contract is declared null and void in Spain, but it is an increasingly popular assisted reproduction technique in Spanish society. This incoherence is due to the fact that the existing regulatory inequality in this area in different countries of the world has led to the creation of a reproductive tourism. Subsequently, the registration of children's births using this technique has been admitted under certain circumstances by the Civil Registry, so that what is prohibited by a rule with the status of law could be permitted. Various judicial and doctrinal bodies have expressed their views on the ethical and legal implications of this situation for the national legal system and for Spanish citizens, calling for new regulations to solve the problems posed by the current situation. The present work aims to elaborate an exposition of the most outstanding regulations of other legal systems for their comparison with the current legislative situation in Spanish territory and with the final objective of proposing a new model of regulation. Due to the high number of cases that occur each year, not only in Spain but throughout the world, there is no doubt that gestation by substitution is an undeniable reality. Therefore, we conclude with the need to create a new regulation that, in any case, contemplates the necessary guarantees for all parties involved in surrogacy.