The debate about surrogacy has flared up again after a high-profile feature on Carina Bergfeldt's talk show on SVT. In the program, party fixer Micael Bindefeld and his husband Nicklas Sigurdsson talked about how a few years ago they had their son via a surrogate mother in the United States, which led to harsh criticism.
One who has aired her dissatisfaction is Clara Berglund, who reported the episode to the Review Board and accused SVT of being impartial and "normalizing trade in women's bodies".
In Monday's News, she met Benjamin Dousa, ceo of the think tank Timbro, in a debate. Dousa, who has previously been a moderate politician, believes that surrogacy should be allowed in Sweden.
Above all, he is in favor of altruistic surrogacy, which means that there is no money involved.
"It could be a sibling, a close friend, a relative who does it. I think that's a reasonable first step," he says.
Opposes altruistic surrogacy
But Clara Berglund, and Sweden's women's organizations, oppose that idea.
"We do this because it leads to increased commercial trade, and you see that in those countries that have allowed only altruistic," she says.
She points out that this is a billion-dollar industry where many women are hurt. However, Dousa argues that the issue is basically about a woman's right to her own body.
" You have the right to donate your kidney, why shouldn't you have the right to stand as a surrogate mother?
An argument that does not bite Clara Berglund.
"It's about women terminating the right to their own bodies, about well-off people in Sweden, for example, buying a poor woman's right to abortion," she says.
Hear the debate between Benjamin Dousa and Clara Berglund in the video player above.