[Maternity for others: from desiring a child to desiring a child at any price]. / Maternité pour autrui : du désir d'enfant à l'enfant à tout prix.

Surrogacy is prohibited by French law. On December 17th 2008 the French Court of Cassation has refused the transcription on the French register of civil status of U.S. birth certificates of children born to a surrogate mother in California. Some have been requesting that legislators amend current laws so as to legalize the practice. Such a claim is far from unanimous. Two successive reports of the French Parliament have underlined their opposition to such modifications: the first report has been delivered by a working group of the Senate and the second by the Parliamentary Office for Scientific and Technological Choices. We propose to analyze the elements that are opposed to the legalization of the practice. We do not underestimate the suffering of couples without children or the love they want to give but if surrogacy is forbidden it is because of the numerous difficulties it entails and that can not be bypassed by sentimental considerations.