Thai authorities are investigating whether Gammy’s surrogate mother Pattaramon Chanbua should be charged because commercial surrogacy is illegal in Thailand.
Gammy’s 21-year-old surrogate mother was told she would receive about $16,000 by a Thai surrogacy agency to act as a surrogate for a West Australian couple David and Wendy Farnell of Bunbury last December.
Receiving payment for surrogacy in Thailand is a contravention of the country’s human trafficking laws.
The surrogacy resulted in twins, a healthy baby girl, which was taken back to Australia with her biological parents and Gammy, who has Down syndrome and a congenital heart defect, who was allegedly abandoned and left with his surrogate mother.
The Thai Ministry of Public Health is now conducting an investigation to crack down on any agencies or clinics who are illegally offering Thai surrogates.
Ms Chanbua, who is currently caring for Gammy, says she now wants his twin sister returned after learning his Australian father is a convicted paedophile.
WA Supreme court documents show the WA man abused at least three girls under the age of 13 in the late 1990s.
“Personally, when I heard the news I was shocked but I can’t say anything much right now,” Ms Chanbua said at a press conference in Thailand yesterday.
“I want her back because she’s my baby. She was in my womb.”
“If (the allegations) are proved to be true, I would like to bring my daughter back to Thailand.”
Ms Chanbua, who has two children of her own, has been caring for the 7-month-old baby since December. She claims the Australian parents from Bunbury in WA rejected Gammy.
However, in a statement to theBunbury Mailthrough a family friend, the couple say they have been traumatised by a messy legal battle and heavy media attention.
“Gammy was very sick when he was born and the biological parents were told he would not survive and he had a day, at best, to live and to say goodbye,” the family friend said.
“This has been absolutely devastating for them, they are on the edge.
“Legally they have been told not to say anything but they wouldn’t be able to anyway.”
The family friend says the situation was made even more difficult by the military lockdown at the time.
“The biological parents were heartbroken that they couldn’t take their boy with them and never wanted to give him up, but to stay would risk them losing their daughter also.
“They prayed for Gammy to survive but were told by doctors that he was too sick, not because of the Down syndrome but because of his heart and lung conditions and infection.”
