She carried our baby: A study on how legalizing gestational surrogacy can address the international obligation of the Philippines

Gestational Surrogacy is a controversial practice all over the world. Case laws in different countries do not even have a unanimous ruling on how to treat this issue. Needless to say, different countries have different stands on this practice. However, if one looks closely at the foundation of this practice, it is merely just another way of practicing one\u27s right to reproduce. Reproductive freedom is one of the rights that are protected and embodied in the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR). Since the said declaration is supported by the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR), state parties to the said conventions are expected to support the beliefs of the said Covenants. Since the Philippines is a state party to the stated conventions, line with this, the legislature now has the obligation to make sure that the rights stated are protected and addressed in our country. However, the Philippine\u27s legislature has not yet done anything to address such right in the Philippines. The main premise of this research is that the Philippines signed and ratified International treaties, therefore the Philippines is now obliged to address these issues and rights, since those are now a binding source of customary international law. Since the Philippines has not yet addressed the issue on Surrogacy, the research was done in an international point of view using international treaties and conventions that are binding in the Philippines, narrowing down then to the provisions in the Constitution. The research intend to explain why Gestational Surrogacy when legalized, will not only be beneficial to the country, it will also address the international obligation of the Philippines. This includes defining the rights of the parties involved, namely the commissioning couple, the surrogate mother, the medical practitioner and the child, and identifying the international instruments protecting them