The dignity of women as a relevant legal argument in Spanish Supreme Court Ruling 277/2022, 31 March 2022, on filiation in surrogacy

Abstract

This commentary focuses on analyzing one of the relevant aspects of the recent decision handed down by the Plenary of the Civil Chamber of the Spanish Supreme Court on March 31, 2022. The jurisdictional decision, although its purpose is to determine parentage, pronounces on the controversial issue that is clearly located in the field of Bioethics and which has been, for some time now, the subject of an intense social, political and legal debate, which is surrogate motherhood and its impact on the dignity of women, as an intrinsic quality inherent to their most basic and fundamental rights. In this case, the Spanish Supreme Court categorically considers that there is a flagrant violation of the dignity of pregnant women and their inviolable rights. After examining the meaning of the essential principle of human dignity, it is concluded that said quality is non-negotiable and inalienable and, therefore, it is not susceptible to resignification that undermines or belittles it in any case, in any other culture, or in any other context.