Greek justice minister Giorgos Floridis has announced that single men and male couples in same-sex relationships will no longer be allowed to have children through surrogacy in the country.
An amendment to the Greek Civil Code introduced changes to family law, particularly clarifying the legal definition of the inability to carry a pregnancy.
A key modification to Article 1350 of the Civil Code, which governed family law, effectively prohibited same-sex male couples and single men from becoming parents via surrogacy.
The changes revealed on April 1 did not impose any restrictions on surrogacy for single women or women in same-sex relationships.
Floridis stated the legislative revision was necessary to resolve legal inconsistencies. Several cases involving gay couples had been brought before Greek courts, leading to contradictory rulings, he said.
According to the minister, the amendment made it explicitly clear that “men do not have the right to surrogacy”.
“We are clarifying, once and for all, that the inability to carry a pregnancy to term is not a gender-related disability,” Floridis stated.
“In other words, a woman may be unable to bear a child regardless of whether she is in a relationship with a man, a woman, or is single.”
The new bill as outlined by the ministry introduced strict regulations regarding medically assisted reproduction, particularly egg transfer to another woman’s body. It explicitly stated that “an inability to conceive due to sex does not constitute a medical inability to conceive”.
Surrogacy would now be reserved exclusively for women — whether single or married — who were unable to conceive due to medical reasons.
Floridis defended the reform, arguing that it served an essential humanitarian purpose. He asserted that under the previous interpretation of the law, Greece risked becoming a hub for surrogacy-related exploitation and trafficking.
Greece last year became the first majority-Orthodox Christian country to legalise same-sex marriage.
Conservative groups and the influential Greek Orthodox Church have strongly opposed the marriage equality law.
Surrogacy laws vary widely across the world. While some countries regulate it, others ban the practice entirely. In Spain and Italy, surrogacy is illegal, whereas in the US, so-called commercial surrogacy is widely practiced.
The Greek Parliament has approved same-sex marriage, despite strong objections from the Christian Orthodox Church. https://t.co/p0ir1RhqLE
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