“The legal framework regarding surrogacy is an important guarantee for defending women’s rights and ensuring their psychological and physical health.

An integral part of this is article 1458 of the Civil Code and law 3305/2005 (article 13), which preserves the “altruistic” and voluntary nature of surrogacy, with the explicit reference to the “without exchange agreement of the persons who seek to have a child both of the woman who will become pregnant, as well as of her husband, if she is married.”

All these make up the basic framework document on surrogacy, forwarded to Parliament by the Minister of Justice, Giorgos Floridis, after a related question was submitted.

The Justice Minister’s document contains a reminder and a message about how the ministry will proceed in the future, in relation to surrogacy. The reminder, which Mr. Floridis deemed appropriate to make, is that the Civil Code (article 1455) prohibits the selection of a child’s sex “unless a serious sex-linked hereditary disease is to be avoided”. The message sent by the Minister of Justice is that despite the strong legal framework that exists in Greece, the ministry monitors the constantly changing social conditions and needs, as well as the developments in the medical field and evaluates, as it always does, the application completeness and capacity of legislative framework in order to strengthen our legal system each time with its interventions for the benefit and protection of the parties involved, and in this case women and children. The Justice Secretary’s document was delivered to Parliament just 24 hours before the Prime Minister opened the debate on same-sex couples by making it clear that the Government would not “tamper” with assisted reproduction at all.

Mr. Floridis refers to surrogate motherhood, in response to a question addressed to him by Greek Solution MP Vassilis Grammenos, calling on the ministry to take the initiative and outlaw surrogate motherhood, given the serious harm it causes to the psyche of surrogate mothers. In opposition to the repeal, the member of parliament called on the government to promote counseling for couples with fertility problems, so that they do not submit women who are indigent, for the most part, to the mental and physical test of surrogacy, and with the aim of opening the horizons of recognition to them of the benefits of an emotional shift toward adoption.

The following is the written response of the Minister of Justice:

“Greece was one of the first countries in the European Union to introduce into its legal order regulations for medical assistance in human reproduction. Its aim was, on the one hand, to ensure respect for the freedom of the individual and the right to personality and to satisfy the desire to obtain offspring based on the data of medicine, biology and the principles of bioethics, and on the other hand, the formation of a strong legal framework that would legally define the operation of the specific and particularly sensitive medically and socially sector with full and absolute respect for the rights of women – surrogate or assisted mothers – and children. The legal framework concerning surrogacy and defined by laws 3089/2002 on “Medical assistance in human reproduction”, as amended and in force, by law 3305/2005 on the “Implementation of Medically Assisted Reproduction” (A’17 ) and Law 4958/2022 on “Reforms to medically assisted reproduction and other emergency arrangements” (A’142) is an important guarantee for the defense of women’s rights and the safeguarding of their psychological and physical health. An integral part of this is article 1458 of the Civil Code and article 13 of Law 3305/2005, under which the “altruistic” and voluntary nature of surrogacy is preserved with the explicit reference to the “without exchange agreement of the persons who seek to have a child and of the woman who will become pregnant, as well as of her husband, if she is married”. It is also pointed out that article 1455 of the Civil Code prohibits the selection of the sex of the child “unless it is to avoid a serious hereditary disease linked to sex”. In any case, the Ministry of Justice monitors the ever-changing social conditions and needs, as well as the developments in the medical field and evaluates, as it always does, the implementation completeness and capacity of the legislative framework in order to strengthen our legal rights with its interventions. system for the benefit and protection of the parties involved, and in this case women and children”.