Thailand is cracking down on commercial surrogacy, including enacting a measure that would ban foreign couples from seeking a surrogate in the country.
First drafted five years ago, the law was unanimously passed by the Thai parliament on Thursday, spurred by a series of recent high-profile scandals that roiled the profitable but often controversial industry.
In one case last year, a Thai surrogate mother, Pattaramon Chanbua, said an Australian couple had abandoned one child in a set of twin infants after learning the boy, Gammy, had Down syndrome.
The couple, David and Wendy Farnell, has strongly denied the allegation and told Australia’s Channel Nine in August that the surrogate mother would not give them the infant, the BBC reported.
In another case, Mitsutoki Shigeta, a Japanese man who fathered at least 16 babies using Thai surrogates, was investigated by Interpol, the Guardian reported.
Police found nine surrogate babies with nannies and another pregnant surrogate mother in his Bangkok apartment.
“Surrogacy business leaves too much long-term trouble for Thailand, so we are banning foreign couples from seeking surrogacy in our country to avoid being a hub and prevent what we saw last year,” National Legislative Assembly member Wanlop Tangkananurak told the Associated Press.
But the new measures will go beyond restrictions on foreigners seeking surrogates in Thailand.
The new law also imposes tighter restrictions on Thai couples who seek surrogates in the country. Only couples who prove they are unable to bear children and have no relatives who could act as surrogates on their behalf are eligible to seek services. Couples comprised of only one Thai spouse must be married for at least three years.
Whether the new law will be sufficiently enforced is under debate.
“Just like drinking and driving. We have the law. But they never enforce it,” Dr. Somsak Lolekha of the Thai Medical Council told the BBC. “That is a weak point of Thailand.”
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