SANTIAGO, Chile, April 3 (UPI) -- Chile has joined other Latin American countries seeking to legislate surrogacy, which has expanded across the region with only limited regulation.
The Family Committee of the Chamber of Deputies began this week to discuss a bill supported by all political parties that would prohibit and penalize the practice of surrogate motherhood.
"There needs to be a legal and ethical debate because children are not consumer goods and motherhood creates bonds that are not easy to ignore," lawmaker Ximena Ossandon, co-author of the bill, told UPI.
She warned that the supply of surrogacy services has increased with formal and informal advertising, particularly through social media, and said she hopes the bill can be approved by the end of this year.
Chile's initiative adds to other countries in the region that seek to regulate the practice.
