MdB RA Dr. Stephan Harbarth

Stellv. Vorsitzender CDU/CSU-Bundestagsfraktion

Abstract

The right-wing perspective

Surrogacy is prohibited in Germany. § 1591 BGB, inserted by the Children's Reform Act of 1997, states that a child’s mother is the woman who has born it. This is to avoid a split of motherhood into a genetic and biological motherhood. While the prohibition of surrogate motherhood is applied in Germany, many legal questions arise when German would-be parents use a surrogate mother abroad, and - with their child - return to Germany. Questions about the recognition of a second mother arise in the case of same-sex partnerships (a so-called co-mother).  These cases, some of which have also been dealt with by jurisprudence, illustrate fundamental conflicts of interest, and are discussed in more detail in the context of a legal policy background.

Curriculum Vitae

Dr. Harbarth studied law at the Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg (First Jurisprudence, 1996) and Yale Law School (LL.M., 2000). In 1998, he was appointed as Dr. iur. at the Ruprecht Karl University. Dr. Harbarth has been a lawyer since 2000. In 2009, he was elected to the German Bundestag as a member of the CDU/CSU parliamentary group. Since 2016, he has been the deputy chairman of the CDU/CSU Bundestag for the areas of law and consumer protection, interior, sport and honorary office, emigrants, and German minorities.