BANGKOK: Drama continues to engulf Thailand's surrogacy industry.
The country's military-dominated parliament has moved to legislate to stop the practice, except in cases involving relatives, after Fairfax Media revealed the plight of baby Gammy in August.
Officials from Australia and Thailand remain locked in talks on a transition process aimed at allowing more than 150 Australian couples who have arrangements with Thai surrogates to take their babies home.
But Thai officials have warned Bangkok authorities will enforce a requirement that foreign couples obtain a court order to allow them to leave the country with their babies, which could take months.
Meanwhile, individual cases continue to arise that highlight the morally fraught terrain of the surrogacy industry.
A 35-year-old surrogate mother has asked for protection from a surrogacy agent after she cancelled her contract and said she would keep her baby who was supposed to go to a Western couple.
And a lawyer for Japanese millionaire Mitsutoki Shigeta, 24, who fathered at least 15 babies through Thai surrogate mothers, has told police he wanted to have more than 20 babies to take care of his many family businesses.
Fairfax Media has also uncovered a case involving a 58-year-old Australian man believed to be dying of cancer who arranged a Thai surrogate mother to carry his baby, who was born in July with genital ambiguity.
The man returned to Melbourne for medical treatment a few days after the birth of the baby who was registered at a Thai hospital as a girl.
A relative of the man has taken the baby to Australia.
The surrogate mother said the man told her after the baby was born, ''I'm so thankful . . . you did a miracle for me.''
The mother said she was ''so sad, with something missing inside me'' when the baby was taken from her five days after the birth.
The man's interpreter told her the biological father returned to Melbourne for urgent surgery.
''I hope in the future if the Australian father is not around someone else from his family will take care of the baby well,'' the mother said.
Fairfax Media
The country's military-dominated parliament has moved to legislate to stop the practice, except in cases involving relatives, after Fairfax Media revealed the plight of baby Gammy in August.
Officials from Australia and Thailand remain locked in talks on a transition process aimed at allowing more than 150 Australian couples who have arrangements with Thai surrogates to take their babies home.
But Thai officials have warned Bangkok authorities will enforce a requirement that foreign couples obtain a court order to allow them to leave the country with their babies, which could take months.
Meanwhile, individual cases continue to arise that highlight the morally fraught terrain of the surrogacy industry.
A 35-year-old surrogate mother has asked for protection from a surrogacy agent after she cancelled her contract and said she would keep her baby who was supposed to go to a Western couple.
And a lawyer for Japanese millionaire Mitsutoki Shigeta, 24, who fathered at least 15 babies through Thai surrogate mothers, has told police he wanted to have more than 20 babies to take care of his many family businesses.
Fairfax Media has also uncovered a case involving a 58-year-old Australian man believed to be dying of cancer who arranged a Thai surrogate mother to carry his baby, who was born in July with genital ambiguity.
The man returned to Melbourne for medical treatment a few days after the birth of the baby who was registered at a Thai hospital as a girl.
A relative of the man has taken the baby to Australia.
The surrogate mother said the man told her after the baby was born, ''I'm so thankful . . . you did a miracle for me.''
The mother said she was ''so sad, with something missing inside me'' when the baby was taken from her five days after the birth.
The man's interpreter told her the biological father returned to Melbourne for urgent surgery.
''I hope in the future if the Australian father is not around someone else from his family will take care of the baby well,'' the mother said.
Fairfax Media
