Surrogacy in Colombia: Contributions to a Transactional Regulation That Shall Guarantee Human Rights

This article formulates guidelines for the transactional regulation of surrogacy in Colombia, based on a comparative analysis with the Mexican regulatory model, especially in the states of Tabasco and Sinaloa. To this end, a qualitative methodology was adopted by applying the technique of comparative law to simultaneously analyze the regulations of the focused Mexican states and the most recent (now shelved) initiative in Colombian law, identifying significant contributions to national progress in surrogacy through the theory of legal transactions, the principle of solidarity, and the right to found a family. The results show that, although Colombia had tried to progress in recognizing procreative will as the basis for filiation and has attempted regulatory adjustments to the civil registry, serious regulatory gaps persisted in the design of post-contractual mechanisms, especially regarding the prevention of human trafficking, the well-being of gestational carriers, institutional monitoring, and the guarantee of breastfeeding. The conclusions show that effective regulation should not focus exclusively on formalizing agreements between adults but should also guarantee the fundamental rights of the child from birth. In contrast, the Mexican model offers valuable tools to enrich the Colombian debate, but it also has some shortcomings that warrant revision. Therefore, this study contributes to the Colombian legislative discussion by calling for comprehensive regulation guided by the dignity of all the involved subjects and based on comparative experiences.