GPA it's called in France. Gestation pour autrui.
Carrying a baby for someone else. Surrogate mothers.
Who should benefit from it? With what conditions if any? And why? Should limits be imposed? If so, which? And by whom? Should Dilbert, for example, be able to buy a baby if he wants one? He has tons of money, so why not?
As Liberation calls for access to surrogate mother services "for all" (see front page below). foreign for-profit corporations specialized in surrogacy flock to France and activists ramp up their demands.
Presented by supporters in France as a gay rights issue, medically assisted procreation "for all" has been strongly condemned by women's groups - including lesbian women's groups. The conflict is splitting the LGBT movement in France, pitting men against women.
The Collectif National pour les Droits de Femmes explains why it is against GPA here, denouncing the rise of an industry of womb rental and the embryo trade by for profit companies, as well as attempts to remove the very concept of "mother" from laws of filation.
Lesbian groups, such as the LMPT Collectif Oise, have taken a strong position against "systems of exploitation, commercialisation and the appropriation of the bodies of women and more generally human beings" ("les systèmes d’exploitation, de marchandisation et d’appropriation du corps des femmes et plus généralement de tous les êtres humains").
Osez Le Feminism 69 issued a call (below) to pull out of a joint LGBT march here, citing its disagreement with the surrogacy demands by part of the LGBT movement.
A couple of years ago, French fashion industrialist Pierre Bergé, quoted by Le Point, declared: "I am for all liberties," he said. "Renting out one's womb to make a baby or renting out one's muscles to work in a factory, what's the difference?"
Some French women, and not necessarily the most conservative ones, are taking issue with Monsieur Bergé.
** This just in from Nouvel Observateur: **
Marche des Fiertés à Lyon : que viennent faire la GPA et la prostitution dans ce défilé ?
"Des associations féministes et/ou lesbiennes refusent que leurs combats soient associés à la gestation pour autrui ou à la prostitution, pourtant présentes dans le slogan phare de cette année."
