Japanese Man Fathers 9 Children Through a Thai Surrogate

“The faces of nine of the 13 surrogate babies Thai police suspect are fathered by a Japanese businessman have been revealed.

In a press conference on Tuesday, the children at the centre of the latest surrogacy controversy were brought to the forefront as authorities crackdown on Thailand’s surrogacy trade.

The sudden surge in scandals of this nature emerging comes after Australian couple David and Wendy Farnell were accused of leaving baby Gammy behind with his Thai surrogate mother when they found out he had Down syndrome.

Pattaramon Chanbua, 21, became the face of the international outcry when she spoke out about the alleged abandonment.

Last Friday, police found four more babies they believed were fathered by the Japanese businessman who has since fled Thailand.

Officers did not release any more information about the children or where they were found, according to the ABC.

This latest development brings the total number of babies related to the businessman found in Bangkok in the same week to 13.

Another nine were found after police raided a Bangkok apartment earlier in same week and found nine babies aged from several weeks to one year.

The 24-year-old man, accused of being embroiled in a surrogate ‘baby farming’ racket, was allowed to leave the country, carrying an infant, on a Japanese passport, according to The Weekend Australian.

Police Colonel Napunwut Liamsanguan told Reuters the alleged father of the children had travelled ‘in and out of Bangkok many times

The revelation came when police descended on a clinic in the Thai capital on Friday that was believed to have provided the in vitro fertilisation (IVF) service to conceive the babies after receiving a tip from one of the surrogates.

Police believe the clinic – which was empty and had no documents left over – had violated the code of conduct relating to their licence to perform the procedure.

A second clinic owned by the same doctor was also searched by police on Friday.

The penalty for such offences could see the clinic’s doctor jailed for up to one year and face a fine of up to $671.

But if they were not certified to perform surrogacy, the doctor could face an extra three years’ jail and see a fine of more than $2,000.

This comes after Thai officials criticised the Australian Government’s role in feeding the controversial surrogacy trade in Thailand by allowing agencies to play a part in the citizenship process.

Due to the high demand of surrogate-born babies in Thailand, the Thai Government claims it is finding it practically impossible to regulate the movement of newborns leaving the country on foreign passports – set-up in part by the surrogate agencies themselves.

All passport documentation is handled by surrogate agencies before it is processed by Australian immigration, and this is proving problematic for the Thai Government because it keeps the controversial industry profitable.

It also makes it difficult for Thai officials to keep track of babies born by surrogacy leaving which leave the country.

Wanchai Ruchanawong of the Attorney-Generals Department said the Thai Government does not have records of when prospective parents enter as a couple and leave as a family – but it should.

‘The Western couples come in as two and walk out as three, with a Thai child,’ Wanchai Ruchanawong told The Weekend Australian.

He said this makes it particularly difficult to keep track of the legally ‘grey’ surrogate trade when their is no stringent immigration checks at the border.

‘Immigration should have records – this is totally bizarre to us,’ Mr Wanchai sai

His comments come almost two weeks after the global uproar of baby Gammy, and since then the Thai government announced 100 clinics and hospitals had carried out thousands of unregulated in vitro procedures on local mothers for foreign biological western parent

A spokesman for Immigration Minister Scott Morrison said yesterday that Australian citizenship laws does not differentiate how a child came to be born if he or she is the descent of an Australian passport holder.

“The Australian Citizenship Act 2007 does not differentiate how a child came to be born,’ he said.

‘Any application for Australian citizenship by descent is predicated on the link between parent and child.’

He said over the over the past five years, more than 800 citizenship-by-descent applications involving surrogacy arrangements (from all countries) have been approved.

The legal situation of Australians with recent or pending surrogate births still in Thailand has not yet been clarified by the National Council of Peace and Order interim military government.

The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade’s advice to Australians intending to use foreign surrogacy services is to check host country’s laws and visa arrangements.

The advice also states people should: ‘Extreme caution is exercised by the Australian government in cases involving surrogacy arrangements that are entered into overseas, so as to ensure that Australia’s citizenship and passport provisions are not used to circumvent either adoption laws or other child welfare laws.”

 

The innocent faces of nine of 13 children allegedly fathered by Japanese businessman via IVF as the fall-out from baby Gammy continues
[Daily Mail 8/12/14 by LOUISE CHEER FOR DAILY MAIL AUSTRALIA and ASSOCIATED PRESS and AUSTRALIAN ASSOCIATED PRESS]

REFORM Puzzle Piece