Thailand's Medical Council takes action on surrogacy

BANGKOK, August 6 (TNA) - The Medical Council of Thailand will discuss a bill on protecting babies born with reproductive technologies and check the ethics of surrogacy doctors. In response to surrogacy clinics' services that may violate laws, the council said on Wednesday that it is scheduled to also discuss the first punishment on surrogacy doctors on August 7. The council's chair, Dr. Somsak Lolekha, acknowledged that the punishment is likely and the council will also discuss the possibility that the bill on protecting babies born with reproductive technologies be amended to permit surrogacy with non-related surrogate mothers in case that biological mothers have health problems or have no legal relatives. Regarding a recent case of a surrogacy baby born with Down's syndrome and left in Thailand by an Australian couple, Dr. Somsak noted that an ethical committee of the council will conclude its investigation into the issue within 4-5 months. Thai health officials have found that the surrogacy of the baby, identified as Gammy, took place at an obstetric clinic in Bangkok's Ploenchit-Phetchaburi area, in which about 20 doctors were employed. Meanwhile, Dr. Kamthorn Phrueksanont, a director of the Royal Thai College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, told reporters that directors of the college have disagreed with any amendment to the law governing surrogacy and stood firm that surrogacy is to be permitted only among relatives. In a related incident, officials found nine surrogacy children aged between 5 months and ten years on Tuesday night and a surrogate who is six-month pregnant at a condominium on Lat Phrao 130 Road in Bangkok, where each case of surrogacy was subject to a fee of 100,000 baht and children would be raised until they were 11 years old and foreigners would then receive them. The surrogacy children were then sent to Pakkred Babies' Home in Bangkok's suburban Nonthaburi Province. (TNA)