“I exist thanks to surrogacy, but that doesn’t mean I want other children to go through the same thing”. That is the paradox that made Olivia Maurel one of the most vocal critics of this practice.
Olivia discovered through a DNA test that she had been born through surrogacy. As she has recounted, she spent years living with questions about her origins and identity, until she was finally able to learn more details about the woman who carried her.
It was then that, according to her account, she discovered that the woman lived in conditions of extreme poverty. That information ultimately had a profound influence on the position she defends today.
Today, Olivia travels to different countries to call for the abolition of surrogacy. She argues that this practice can exploit women in vulnerable situations and also questions the consequences that, based on her experience, it can have for children born through this method.
That is why she sums up her fight from a very personal place: “I don’t want any child to have to live through what I lived through”.