A Melbourne man, who went through the surrogacy process in Thailand about the same time as the baby Gammy scandal, is fighting to have commercial surrogacy made legal in all Australian states and territories.
Sam Marshall and his late partner Natasha McAlpine started investigating surrogacy in Thailand, three years after she recovered from a cancer that left her unable to conceive a second child.
Mr Marshall said he and Natasha were worried when they heard about baby Gammy, but their clinic was professional and caring and the process ran smoothly.
Sadly though Natasha's cancer returned.
The day after she died, Mr Marshall received a phone call, telling him their surrogate had gone into early labour.
The 36-year-old is now raising his seven-month-old surrogate son named Thai, as well as the couple's first child Toby, on his own.
"When I think about all the stuff Tasha had to go through, all the stuff we had to go through to get Thai - we could have done it here, it's not right," Mr Marshall said.
Thailand banned foreign surrogacy following the baby Gammy scandal, where a West Australian couple was accused of abandoning a twin with Down syndrome.
Surrogacy expert Professor Jenni Millbank, from the Faculty of Law at Sydney's University of Technology, said surrogacy agencies in Thailand were shifting across the border to Cambodia.
Professor Millbank was also aware of six new surrogacy clinics which have set up in Nepal.
She said it was creating new problems.
"I guess what we are seeing is this complicating factor, of patients, donors, surrogates and doctors all crossing borders and treatment taking place in a location that is foreign to all of them," Professor Millbank said.
"So when it comes to language barriers, knowledge of the law or access to record keeping, it is more complicated and more uncertain."
Mr Marshall said they were very lucky with their clinic, but there were still plenty of "dodgy" operators.
He said the simple way to protect people was to make commercial surrogacy legal in Australia.
"We're a first world country so we'd be able to create the processes and structures and protections that would get around the ethical issue of surrogates being taken advantage of, and if you take that ethical issue away then there is no reason not to do it," he said.
Professor Millbank believed there could be heartbreaking consequences of "cross-border reproduction".
"Suppose you've got a complication from your treatment, or suppose your child a few years later wants to identify their egg donor or the surrogate, it appears that records are going to be much harder to access if at all, once you've gone to another country or if your practitioner has gone to a third country," she said.
Mr Marshall's mother Eva Wynn mortgaged her home to pay the $65,000 bill for their time in Thailand.
"Things are getting a bit tight I have to say, but I would have done anything," Ms Wynn said.
Mr Marshall, who has also been diagnosed with slow progressing multiple sclerosis has his hands full with his baby boy and five-year-old son, but said he has so much to be thankful for.
http://www.abc.net.au/
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