Surrogacy Law Expected To Be Promulgated End Of The Year

BANGKOK : -- The legislation concerning surrogacy should become effective by the end of the year, according to the Medical Council of Thailand (MCT).

Affirmation of the surrogacy legislation was made as the Medical Council of Thailand (MCT), the Department of Health Service Support (DHSS) and the Royal Thai College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists met Friday  to discuss the surrogacy issue.

MCT president Dr Somsak Lohleca  stated that the main articles in contention are Articles 21 and 22.

The three agencies agreed that the MCT shall remain as the main body in overseeing this legislation without having to define specifics to the articles as the social structure is expected to change drastically in the years to come.

The main concern should be legislation that prevents surrogacy from being a commercialized business.

The article draft will be presented to the National Legislative Assembly and should take affect within the end of the year.

Meanwhile, Dr  Tharet Karatnaiviwong, deputy secretary of the DHSS, disputed that the proposed article should be proposed as a ministerial regulation.

Surrogate mothers should only be a family member and that legislation should also hold doctors conducting the surrogacy to share in the burden of ensuring that the law is upheld, he said.

Dr Tharet said the legislation will for the first time, introduce legal protection of the surrogate mother and the child she bears similar, the case in point being “Nong Gammy”.

Here an Australian couple paid a Thai lady to bear a child on their behalf but when it turned out that she bore twins and that one of them, “Nong Gammy”, had been diagnosed with Down Syndrome, abandoned him leaving the burden of care to the surrogate mother. It is expected that members of the public will most likely help form and define the specifics of this legislation in due course.

In an update to the investigation of surrogacy involving a Japanese father Mr Shiketa Mitsutoki, his Thai lawyer Mr Kong Suriyamonthon on Friday disclosed that, Mr. Shiketa has requested to postpone his visit to investigators at the Ladprao police station  to submit a formal statement.

Mr Shiketa claims that he is still compiling his paperwork and did not propose an alternate date to make his statement.

The Royal Thai Police is now asking  Interpol to locate Mr. Shiketa who he is currently in Japan. At this stage his exact whereabouts is unknown.

On Friday, Mr Shiketa’s former lawyer Ratprathan Tulathorn  brought an eighth surrogate mother to give her statement at the Lumpini police station.

She said  she was paid 400,000 baht to be a surrogate mother.

The eighth Thai mother told police investigators that she was impregnated with a fetus by Dr Pisit Tantiwattanakul, the owner of the All IVF Clinic located in Ploenchit district of Bangkok.

Dr  Pisit earlier informed the police he would turn himself in to the police next week. The police said if he fails to show up, a warrant for his arrest will be issued.