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 The case has raised questions about Thailand's lax laws on surrogacy
and caused an outcry in Australia, sparking calls for an overhaul of
laws to cut the number of couples traveling abroad in search of
surrogates.
The agent told Reuters the biological parents made the offer to take
the boy some weeks after the birth, despite claims by surrogate
mother Pattaramon Janbua that the couple had abandoned the baby
after they found out he had Down syndrome.
"In the end, they told me they would take both babies. They didn't
want to be a problem for the surrogate mother any more but she (Pattaramon)
did not take that chance," said the agent, who only wanted to be
identified by her nickname, Joy.
The boy, Gammy, now seven months old, is being treated for a lung
infection in a hospital east of Bangkok and also has heart problems.
Australian couple David and Wendy Farnell have taken his healthy
twin sister back to Australia. They have not spoken publicly about
the case and reports of their actions have been muddled and
contradictory.
Media reports that David Farnell was a sex offender have fueled the
outrage over the case. According to Australian District Court
documents obtained by Reuters, he was jailed in 1997 for a minimum
of three years for sex offences involving three girls aged under 13.
Reuters was unable to contact Farnell for comment despite repeated
attempts to reach him by telephone.
CHANGE OF HEART
Joy said Pattaramon had agreed to keep Gammy after discovering he
had Down syndrome, fearing she would be asked to abort him, which
she would have refused to do as a Buddhist.
But the couple then had a change of heart.
"They said they wanted to take both babies home. When the surrogate
mum heard that, she called to say sorry. She said she wouldn't take
payment but would keep Gammy," Joy said, adding the agency had
assured Pattaramon she would not have to abort the child.
Joy, who gave up working for the agency several months ago, said no
formal contract was ever signed by Pattaramon, the agency and the
couple.
Pattaramon said on Sunday that the doctors, the agency and the
baby's parents had known Gammy was disabled when she was four months
pregnant but only told her in the seventh month.
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She has said she agreed to a fee of 350,000 baht ($10,900) to carry
the twins for the couple. She said the agent agreed to pay her
another 150,000 baht to keep Gammy.
Pattaramon said the agent who brokered the arrangement with the
Australian couple reneged on paying her in full.
Joy denied this. "There is some misunderstanding about the money
issue. She was not happy that we were paying her in installments,"
she said.
A Thai official said on Tuesday that a Bangkok clinic may have
violated Thailand's regulations on surrogacy and that the head of
the clinic could face up to a year in jail and a 20,000 baht ($620)
fine.
He declined to identify the clinic, which authorities inspected on
Tuesday. They are to check all clinics offering surrogacy services
around the country to see if they are respecting regulations.
There are no laws directly relating to surrogacy in Thailand. It is
largely tolerated, although commercial surrogacy is against the
Medical Council of Thailand's code of conduct.
Surrogacy is allowed if blood relatives of the couple are the
surrogates, but exceptions are permitted if such a surrogate is
unavailable. The clinic involved in the current controversy was
licensed to offer surrogate births under those regulations.
($1 = 32.1500 Thai Baht)
(Additional reporting by Jutarat Skulpichetrat in Bangkok and Byron
Kaye in Sydney; Editing by Alan Raybould)
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