Thai Surrogate Mother Heart Ache

[kendo]

This really is a disgusting story of an west Australian couple's selfishness.They paid a young Thai girl 21, to be a surrogate mother, on the normal tests for pregnancy it was discovered that one of the twin baby's had downs syndrome. The surrogate mother refused to terminate the pregnancy with her Buddhist beliefs .
The Australian couple separated the twins and took the healthy one back to Australia.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-28617912

Reading this story has choked me.

kendo.

[pdm3547]

I read this earlier. What a terrible state of affairs.

[margaretcarnes]

This is so wrong on so many levels. Not least that according to the report it was an illegal surrogacy, which probably means that the surrogate mother doesn't have any legal redress. But also if the baby does get surgery and survives he is clearly farang in a Thai family with no hope of ever knowing his twin, no genetic record to maybe help him medically, and questions he will want answers to as he grows up.

[jingjoe]

I was watching the abc australian news this morning and there has been an uproar in australia,on the bright side over 3million baht has been donated to help with the care of the baby,i just hope the money is managed properly and not wasted.

[theprice01]

bright side over 3million baht has been donated to help with the care of the baby,i just hope the money is managed properly and not wasted.

It wouldn't suprise me if they've spent the lot already.

I hope they find a workable solution

[Nereus]

The Australian couple separated the twins and took the healthy one back to Australia.

Where did you get that info from? I have yet to read any report concerning the Australian couple. What I have read is that the Thai "agent" may NOT have informed the couple, either about there being twins, or that one of them had a medical problem.

Make no mistake: I woukd be first inline to shoot the couple if it is proved that they deliberately left the poor liitle kid behind. There is more to this than is known just yet, and until the full story emerges, especially the role of the "agent", then nobody has the right to condemn anybody.

[Big Boy]

It's been all over Sky News this morning.

[Nereus]

It's been all over Sky News this morning.

Oh well, I guess that makes it right then?

[Big Boy]

Not saying that, but you asked where the info was coming from. I was simply answering your question.

[kendo]

This story was trending everywhere yesterday I would regard the Beeb as a pretty good sorce.

Kendo.

[Big Boy]

I understand what Nereus is saying. Day 1 of most news is the sensationalism that sells newspapers. Give it a couple of days, and we'll hear both sides of the story (if there is another side).

[kendo]

I bet this Australian couple will be desperate to stay anonymous for fear of being vilified and ridiculed.

My thought
Their should be an official enquiry by the Australian Government.

Kendo.

[dtaai-maai]

I bet this Australian couple will be desperate to stay anonymous for fear of being vilified and ridiculed.

It's difficult to believe that the press doesn't know who they are, which makes me all the more inclined to withhold judgement until all the facts are known. I remember the 'paedophile' outrage in the UK some years ago that led to all kinds of hate-filled vigilantism, often against completely innocent people. Beware the easy headline.

Trying to look at this objectively is difficult based on sketchy details and given the emotive nature of the whole issue, but firstly: what kind of surrogacy was this? There are several possible scenarios. The Thai lady is quoted as saying "He's like my child now". Again, we don't know how accurate that quote is, but surely in most senses he was always her child, unless the foetus was conceived without her egg and implanted.

As far as surrogacy is concerned, most countries allow it in one form or another, but pretty much all of them don't allow 'paid surrogacy agreements', although some form of compensation for actual costs is permitted.

This was clearly an illegal surrogacy brokered by an 'agent' acting in breach of the law. What's happening to him? What about the doctor(s) who must have been involved at some stage?

The other aspect of this is that the Aussie couple (allegedly) asked the girl to have an abortion (presumably of just the twin with the heart condition and Down's syndrome, but again we don't know this). If it had been a legally arranged surrogacy, presumably this scenario would have been considered in advance. The girl didn't want an abortion because of her Buddhist beliefs. There doesn't appear to be a fixed Buddhist position on either abortion or surrogacy, and in Thailand both are regulated by civil law.

Wiki has this to say:

Laws and views on abortion vary greatly in Theravada Buddhist nations. Attitudes and laws in Thailand are generally more liberal than in Sri Lanka. While abortion is still viewed as negative in Burma (Myanmar), it is allegedly also employed with some frequency to prevent out-of-wedlock births. Regarding attitudes towards abortion in Thailand, Peter Harvey notes:

...abortion is discussed not in the language of rights – to life or choice – but of ‘benefit and harm, with the intent of relieving as much human suffering in all its states, stages and situations as circumstances allow’, with an emphasis on reducing the circumstances leading women to feel that they need to have an abortion.

In November 2010, the issue of abortion and Buddhism in Thailand was thrust onto the front pages after 2000 fetuses were discovered stored at a temple in Bangkok. Abortion remains illegal in the country except in cases of rape or risk to the woman's health. Following the scandal, leading politicians and monks spoke out to reaffirm their opposition to more liberalised abortion laws. Phramaha Vudhijaya Vajiramedhi was unequivocal: "In [the] Buddhist view, both having an abortion and performing an abortion amount to murder. Those involved in abortions will face distress in both this life and the next because their sins will follow them." Prime Minister Abhisit announced a crackdown on illegal abortion clinics and refused calls to change the law, saying that current laws were "good enough."

If this is correct, she couldn't have legally aborted the child unless there was a risk to her own health.

I'm not offering any answers, but I think it would be more sensible to talk about the broad issues of surrogacy rather than just this one case, however heart-rending it may be. Of course, if it wasn't, we'd never have heard anything about it.

[kendo]

The other aspect of this is that the Aussie couple (allegedly) asked the girl to have an abortion (presumably of just the twin with the heart condition and Down's syndrome, but again we don't know this).

I don't believe that medically you can select one foetus for termination as the procedure is basically done with vacuum at that stage of gestation.

The reason I think the Aussie government should have an enquiry is to learn the key facts here and make sure it doesn't happen again. I would also like them to offer some medical assistance to the girl and the child.

Up in Surin this Australian lad thought he could take on the locals and came off second best and it cost him his life his pregnant girlfriend was granted a visa to go and live with the parents of this lad and is now living there raising the baby.

Kendo.

[margaretcarnes]

I'm pretty sure that selective termination can be permormed Kendo - but obviously with a risk to the healthy foetus as well. But hey - where's a doctor when you need one? !