Chile, on the way to banning surrogacy

The Family Commission of the Chamber of Deputies approved in general, unanimously (nine votes in favor across the political spectrum), the bill that prohibits and punishes surrogate motherhood in Chile.

The proposal states as grounds for prohibiting surrogacy in Chile that it is contrary to the dignity of women and children, in addition to seeing it as a form of commercialization of gestation.

Along these lines, the proposal proposes to establish the full nullity of surrogacy contracts and to provide that maternal filiation is determined by childbirth.

Legal measures

The bill also criminalizes the intermediation, promotion, organization and commercialization of surrogacy, including the participation of health professionals and conduct that takes advantage of the vulnerability of women. These infractions could be punished with prison sentences and fines.

On the other hand, the initiative also proposes to incorporate preventive measures in the areas of health and adoption. For example, prohibiting the transfer of eggs for reproductive purposes or adoption by individuals or couples who have participated in surrogacy agreements.

The Chamber of Deputies must vote on the bill in the following months and, if approved, it will pass to the Senate for its study and vote.

International context

The «Casablanca Group of Experts for the Universal Abolition of Surrogate Motherhood” welcomes the unanimous and transversal vote by which the Family Commission of the Chilean Chamber of Deputies approved, in general, this bill. They emphasize that this vote brought together deputies from the left, center and right, and marks a decisive step in the legislative process and clearly recognizes the need to prohibit this practice.

It is worth recalling the words of Pope Leo XIV to the Diplomatic Corps on January 9, 2026: “The practice of surrogacy exists. By turning gestation into a negotiable service, it violates the dignity of both the child, who is reduced to a “product”, and the mother, by exploiting her body and the generative process and altering the original relational vocation of the family”.

In Latin America, surrogacy is not legally regulated in the vast majority of countries. Only two Mexican states, Tabasco and Sinaloa, regulate it in their civil codes. Two other countries, Brazil and Uruguay, allow it in a very restricted way. In contrast, two Mexican states, San Luis Potosí and Querétaro, are the only Latin American territories where it is explicitly prohibited.