An Australian couple accused of abandoning a surrogate baby with Down’s Syndrome have told the media they were unaware the boy existed.
A 21-year-old woman in Thailand was paid by the couple to be a surrogate mother for their children. She claimed they took the boy’s healthy twin sister but refused to take the boy, named Gammy, because of his condition.
The Australian media has since reported that the surrogacy agency told the couple that only one child was born. Australia’s Channel Nine and ABC News say the couple claim they were shocked to learn that the surrogate mother gave birth to twins.
However, surrogate mother Pattaranon Janbua maintains that the couple were aware of Gammy’s existence and that the biological father visited the twins at a hospital in Bangkok. She also claims that she was asked by the couple to have an abortion once they knew about Gammy's Down’s Syndrome, but she refused.
She plans to keep Gammy and raise him as her own child. As well as Down's syndrome, the six-month-old boy has a congenital heart condition and a lung infection.
An online campaign by an Australian charity has raised more than $215,000 to pay for the child's medical care.
Andrea Williams of the Christian Legal Centre said:
"Surrogacy creates a situation in which children are treated as commodities. When people pay for surrogacy, babies who are considered less than 'perfect' are easily rejected. It betrays a 'we want what we paid for' attitude.
"Paying surrogate mothers creates serious risks for the babies being born in this way and also for women by encouraging them to rent out their wombs.”
Read the full story (BBC) >
Risks of surrogacy
Dr Peter Saunders of the Christian Medical Fellowship has warned of the risks of surrogacy. He illustrates them through another surrogate pregnancy case which he says shows “just how complicated things can become in a world where IVF, commercial surrogacy and abortion come together”:
Read Dr Peter Saunders' blog on surrogacy >
