Forced Surrogacy as a Crime Against Humanity: Expanding the Scope of the International Criminal Court

Abstract

The 2025 human egg farm case in Georgia, where Thai women were kidnapped, forcibly subjected to repeated egg harvesting, and held under coercive medical control, exposed a disturbing form of reproductive exploitation: forced surrogacy. This article defines forced surrogacy as the imposition of reproductive labor, including egg harvesting, embryo implantation, and/or gestation, without meaningful consent. It argues that existing international crimes fail to capture its unique harms and calls for its recognition as a standalone crime against humanity under the International Criminal Court Statute.