As the genetic mothers of thousands of children, egg donors have a unique position in the surrogacy industry. Outwardly, they are described as "socially conscious university students" who want to donate eggs for "altruistic reasons". Last week, DN revealed that young women who donate eggs to surrogacy clinics in Colombia are also selling their bodies in the global live sex industry.
Surrogate arrangements are not permitted within Swedish healthcare. However, it is not illegal to have a child with a surrogate in other countries, and take the child home with you. In Sweden, there are several surrogacy agencies, including Tammuz, which sign contracts with prospective parents, and are responsible for the legal and administrative parts of the process. Clinics abroad are responsible for the medical interventions.
Susannah Sjöberg, secretary general of Sweden's Women's Organizations, a party-politically independent umbrella organization for the Swedish women's movement, says that the information in the DN review is "shocking".
- Women's bodies are, once again, a commodity. It is embarrassing that Sweden has not done more to close the surrogacy agencies.
In an email, the press department of the Social Democrats writes that the party wants to review the surrogate agencies' activities - "with the aim of banning them".
S-women's chairman, Annika Strandhäll, believes that it is in a hurry.
- The business of these agencies is a commercial buying and selling market for children and women's bodies on an almost industrial scale. And they contribute to normalizing a view where "orders" are placed on children based on desired qualities. It is nothing that Sweden can agree to.
If the new government is led by the Social Democrats, she wants to see a quick investigation, in order to be able to ban the activities of the intermediaries in Sweden.
- We must close the loopholes in the legislation that these companies use and make sure that they cannot operate in Sweden at all, says Annika Strandhäll.
Like the Social Democrats, the Sweden Democrats also want Sweden to work for an international ban on surrogate arrangements.
- Those who get involved in this are above all those who want to have children through surrogacy. We believe that it should not come before women's rights in other countries, says Mikael Eskilandersson, the party's civil policy spokesperson.
The party has previously motioned that Sweden should work at EU level and in other international contexts to bring about an end to surrogate arrangements.
- We hope that there will be a parliamentary majority for it going forward, says Mikael Eskilandersson.
But stopping surrogacy agencies from operating in Sweden would not prevent Swedish citizens from carrying out surrogacy arrangements abroad, according to Roy Youldous Raiss, marketing manager at surrogacy intermediary Tammuz.
In an email, he writes that it would instead lead to families "being forced to deal with complicated medical, legal and ethical processes on their own".
This increases, he believes, the risk that they are exposed to "unregulated intermediaries and reduces transparency and professional supervision".
Annika Strandhäll dismisses the arguments.
- There is nothing in their reasoning that prevents us from proceeding with a ban in Sweden.
She draws parallels to the sex-buying legislation and the ban on discipline.
- Legislation sets a framework for what society considers to be civilized, and influences citizens' values over time.
Several political parties - the Moderates, the Liberals and the Center Party - instead want to make it easier for the childless to have children with a surrogate and want to allow altruistic arrangements in Sweden as well.
In an email, the Moderates' press secretary Filip Uthammar writes that the party wants to "open a new path to parenthood, and so that women who want to help others become parents should not be prevented from doing so".
