Surrogacy update: Baby wait

21 สิงหาคม 2557

Australian families hoping to take their babies born to surrogate Thai mothers back home are finding the process is now anything but easy.

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Officials led by director-general Boonruang Trairuangworawat of the Department of Health Service Support "inspected" the SFC Fertility Clinic in a raid Wednesday on Amarin Tower in Pathumwan district. The clinic was found to be operating legally. The ongoing surrogacy controversy is complicating efforts by parents to take surrogate babies already born out of the country. PATTARAPONG CHATPATTARASILL

Stranded couples wait on court

8 Australian families caught in surrogacy row

Post Reporters

Eight Australian families and 14 children born from Thai surrogate mothers are in Bangkok waiting for legal procedures to be completed before they can leave the country, a senior diplomatic source told the Bangkok Post Wednesday.

Of the eight, five families with nine babies have obtained citizenship papers for their nine children and are waiting for their passports.

Three other families with five children are in the process of obtaining citizenship papers and passports, the diplomatic source said.

All families, the source said, are in a similar situation to that of Adam and Kate Osborne, an Australian couple from New South Wales, who travelled to Thailand in July for the birth of their twins.

According to the Daily Telegraph in Australia, the twins, named Sierra Leone and Mali, were born on July 22 to a Thai surrogate mother.

The Osbornes have completed their documentation with the Australian embassy but require a court order that would allow them to take the babies out of the country.

Efforts are under way to raise funds for the Osbornes thorough a crowdfunding webpage, where AS$4,000 (119,000 baht) had been raised by Wednesday night. The Osbornes say they are fearful they will be unable to leave because of the surrogacy row.

The "Nong Gammy case", whose Australian father was a convicted paedophile, and the discovery of nine babies in a Bangkok condo believed to have been fathered by a Japanese businessman, have ignited public and media attention about commercial surrogacy and possible human trafficking.

A draft surrogacy law has been proposed by the National Council for Peace and Order pending approval by the National Legislative Assembly.

Australian couples who want to take babies born from Thai surrogate mothers out of Thailand need to obtain citizenship papers and passports for their children from the Australian embassy in Bangkok.

Citizenship papers are issued if it can be proven the babies are Australian by descent. This means the baby must be a blood relative of one of the parents. This is done through DNA testing. Once this is done and approved, couples can apply for Australian passports for the babies.

The couples still have to wait for approval from the Family and Juvenile Court before they and their babies can leave Thailand.

Last week, Australian ambassador James Wise asked Thai authorities to consider a “transitional arrangement” to assist 200 Australian couples who have an estimated 150 babies from surrogate Thai mothers still in the country.

The proposal was raised with the Foreign Affairs, Justice, and Social Development and Human Security ministries. “Thai authorities are seeing what they can do to expedite the court approval process,” the diplomatic source said.

Meanwhile, results of DNA tests show the sample claimed to belong to Japanese businessman Mitsutoki Shigeta matches those of 12 babies, including the nine babies found at the Lat Phrao condominium, according to assistant national police chief Korkiat Wongwarachart.

The Japanese man is reported to have fathered 15 babies born to Thai surrogate mothers. Three have reportedly been taken out of the country.