Thai parliament votes to ban commercial surrogacy

BANGKOK, Nov 28 (AFP): Thailand's parliament has voted to ban commercial surrogacy after outrage erupted over the unregulated industry following a series scandals including the case of an Australian couple accused of abandoning a baby with Down's syndrome.
A draft bill-which would see those caught profiting from surrogacy punished with up to ten years in prison-passed its first reading in the country's military-stacked parliament on Thursday, legislators said Friday.
"We want to put an end to this idea in foreigners' minds that Thailand is a baby factory," lawmaker Wallop Tungkananurak told AFP.
"The bill was adopted with overwhelming support," he added.
A copy of the bill seen by AFP also forbids "any middlemen or agencies... receiving any assets or benefits" through the surrogacy process.
Under its current wording it is unlikely foreigners will be able to use Thailand as a surrogacy destination with the same ease they once enjoyed.
The murky industry came under intense scrutiny this summer after a series of surrogacy scandals broke involving foreigners, prompting the promise of a crack down by Thailand's military junta, which took power in a May coup.
Dozens, possibly hundreds, of foreign couples are thought to now be in limbo after entering into surrogacy arrangements through clinics in the kingdom.
Commercial surrogacy has always been officially banned by Thailand's Medical Council, but until recently even top fertility clinics were believed to offer the service.
"Hundreds of intended parents from Australia, or the US and European countries currently have pregnancies underway with Thai surrogates," Sam Everingham, from Families Through Surrogacy in Australia, told AFP.
He added that the junta's vow to clamp down on the industry had caused huge confusion among families looking for surrogates, pushing some families to opt for lesser known destinations such as Nepal and Mexico.