Hope for parents before new Thai surrogacy law begins

HOPE has emerged for hundreds of Australian and foreign biological parents stranded by Thailand’s ban on commercial surrogacy.

A RAY of hope has emerged for hundreds of Australian and other foreign biological parents stranded by Thailand’s sudden ban on commercial surrogacy.

Leading child protection ­expert Sappasit Kumprabhan, who helped draft a new bill that outlaws commercial surrogacy, says interim provisions will allow children born or conceived before implementation to belong to their biological parents.

“The chromosome mother should take the baby to register the birth certificate and have the passport issued,” Dr Sappasit said yesterday.

“This way it can still be done.”

The temporary provisions, which would cover an estimated 100 to 200 Australian biological parents, would require them to petition a Thai court for their parental rights.

But the legal situation remains deeply confused even at senior levels of the Thai bureaucracy.

“Basically we have the same question: what to do next?” said Rarinthip Sirorat, child protection director-general in the Ministry of Social Development, when asked yesterday about the position of Australian biological parents of surrogate children, ­recently born or still being carried by Thai surrogate mothers.

“We may have special measures in the future ... maybe we can consider case-by-case,” she said, referring to several ministry committees studying problems in ­implementation of the law.

But Ms Rarinthip said she thought it was “not appropriate” that Thai-born children could be taken out of the country by foreign surrogate parents.

She said one consideration for children born before the law comes into full force was their birth mothers give them up for adoption — in which case “inter-country” adoption becomes difficult for foreigners and the process typically takes several years. There is still confusion about many aspects of the morass that appeared a fortnight ago after ­exposure of baby Gammy’s ­alleged abandonment by West Australian biological parents David and Wendy Farnell.

The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade yesterday warned that Australian surrogate parents trying to take newborn children from Thailand are likely to face demands from the immigration service for additional proofs of legal parentage.

“Thai authorities may enforce ­enhanced documentation requirements when exiting the country, when they suspect a child has been born by surrogacy in Thailand,” a DFAT spokesman said.