Surrogacy: CDU politician Wolfgang Bosbach suggests Jens Spahn resign soon
The CDU politician Wolfgang Bosbach is the leader of the Union faction Jens Spahn (CDU) suggested that he resign soon because of the use of surrogacy in the USA. “I hope Jens Spahn saves the Union, especially the CDU, a months-long debate about the question of whether he is still the right person to lead the parliamentary group,” said Bosbach on Deutschlandfunk on Saturday.
He referred to the fact that the parliamentary groups will not meet again until after the parliamentary summer break on September 8th. According to Bosbach, Spahn himself must recognize that he has to resign. It would not be good if new demands for resignation were made every day, but Spahn only wanted to let the parliamentary group decide on his future in September.
Bosbach called Spahn’s behavior highly problematic. Politicians made the rules and expected everyone to follow them. The impression should not be given that the rules are not valid for some people or that “there just has to be enough money,” said Bosbach, adding: That would be “fatal.” The gap “between those elected and voters has grown ever larger, and that now makes a further contribution,” said the former member of the Bundestag.
After the parliamentary summer break, the first regular parliamentary group meeting will take place on September 8th. The CDU presidium will meet for its next scheduled meeting the day before. The committee should then also devote itself to the Spahn case. Federal Chancellor Friedrich Merz (CDU) said on Friday that the party’s top body would look into it.
Spahn comments on criticism
Spahn and his husband Daniel Funke announced on Wednesday that they had become parents and that a surrogate mother in the USA gave birth to the baby. Since then, the couple has been criticized because surrogacy is banned in Germany and Spahn’s party is clearly against legalization – just as Spahn himself had done in the past. The main accusation against Spahn is that he used private opportunities that he did not politically allow people in a similar situation in Germany.
Spahn has now also commented on the criticism. He said he would leave it up to his group to decide how to deal with the demands for his resignation from his party Picture-Newspaper. “In the end, only the parliamentary group can decide what happens next,” said Spahn.
CDU politician Brand also expresses criticism
The Christian Democrat Michael Brand also sharply criticized Spahn. The Parliamentary State Secretary in the Federal Ministry for Family Affairs said Fulda newspaper: “What Jens Spahn has done here is a real imposition and unbelievable, that has to be said so clearly.”
Spahn “did not commit a formal, but morally clear violation of the law.” According to Brand, this is all the more dramatic because the same standards should apply to everyone, especially when it comes to law. “That was massively violated here, which is why we have to talk about it consistently and clearly.”
CDU member of the Bundestag warns against exploitation of women
CDU member of the Bundestag Elisabeth Winkelmeier-Becker warned against abuse and exploitation of women. “Not everything that is medically feasible is also ethically acceptable,” she told him
Editorial Network Germany. »Human life must not be turned into a commodity, a woman must not be reduced to her biological function. “That contradicts human dignity and opens the way for abuse and exploitation,” said the Christian Democrat.
For these reasons, the CDU is against any form of surrogacy, added Winkelmeier-Becker. At the same time, the parliamentarian pointed out that reproductive medicine is a growing market in Germany that is hoping for new, lucrative business models without ethical limits. “It’s getting harder, but in my view it’s even more necessary to stand up to it,” said the CDU politician.
Churches criticize Spahn
Church representatives have also joined the numerous critics. The regional bishop of the Evangelical Regional Church in Württemberg, Ernst-Wilhelm Gohl, said that there is a clear ban on surrogacy in Germany. “If a politician of all people makes it public that he has used surrogacy abroad, it is also about double standards and credibility.”
There were also critical voices in the Catholic Church. The Passau bishop Stefan Oster said: If “a prominent CDU politician consciously violates the laws of the country and the basic principles of his own party in the matter of surrogacy in order to fulfill his own wishes in this matter that is so important for our view of humanity, and thereby also promotes surrogacy in a positive way, I consider that to be a real scandal.”