Thailand plans to legalize surrogacy for foreign couples
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[March 01, 2024]
BANGKOK (Reuters) - Thailand is amending a law to allow foreign
couples to seek surrogacy services in the country, a senior health
official said on Friday.
In 2015, Thailand introduced tough regulations to control surrogacy and
banned the process for foreign couples after several high profile
scandals that led to a crackdown on the country's unregulated "wombs for
hire" industry.
"We will amend the law that will allow foreign couples to receive
surrogacy service here based on regulations," Arkhom Praditsuwan, deputy
director-general of Health Service Support Department, told Reuters.
Those eligible must be legally married, regardless of their gender, and
the child from surrogacy must be guaranteed protection and rights in the
couple's home country, Arkhom said.
Foreign couples will be allowed to bring their own surrogate or use a
Thai surrogate, and those undergoing the process will need to be vetted
by a government committee, he said.
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![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2024/Mar/01/images/ads/current/bennet_lda_010722.png) The proposed law changes will be
submitted for cabinet approval later this month as part of a wider
reform of regulations on surrogacy, in-vitro fertilization and
artificial insemination to allow Thais, including same-sex couples,
greater access to these services as well as enhancing medical
tourism, Arkhom said.
If the cabinet approves the amendment, it will be
submitted to parliament and the senate for consideration.
Thailand made commercial surrogacy illegal in 2015 and only allows
surrogacy, controlled by a government committee, for Thai couples or
a Thai who has married a foreigner for at least three years and who
faces difficulty in having children.
(Reporting by Panarat Thepgumpanat and Panu Wongcha-um; Editing by
Kim Coghill)
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