Government May Help Baby Couple Wanted Surrogate to Abort Because He Had Down Syndrome

International   |   Steven Ertelt   |   Aug 5, 2014   |   11:04AM   |   Washington, DC

The Australian government may intervene to save a baby who is getting international media attention because a couple who paid a surrogate to carry their twin babies to term wanted him to be aborted after they found out he had Down Syndrome.

LifeNews.com reported on the tragic story last week about the Australian couple who was paying a woman from Thailand to carry their twin unborn babies as a surrogate and who asked the woman to abort one of the babies because testing had revealed one of the babies has Down Syndrome.

gammy3The couple enlisted the woman, whose family was heavily in debt, to become their surrogate and to use IVF to become pregnant. She was subsequently found to be pregnant with twins but the initial joy turned to rejection when testing showed a boy nicknamed Gammy was diagnosed with Down Syndrome.

The couple wanted the mother to have an abortion, but she refused and eventually gave birth to Gammy and his twin sister in Bangkok. The couple then refused to take Gammy back with them to Australia and left him in Thailand

A campaign to pay Gammy’s medical bills and provide support for him is spreading worldwide. And now, the Australian government may intervene.

Seven-month-old Gammy, who was born with Down syndrome and a congenital heart condition, is being cared for by his young Thai surrogate mother after his Australian biological parents left him behind in Thailand, taking home only his healthy twin sister.

Now the Australian government says it is considering intervening in the case, with the country’s immigration minister saying Monday that the little blond, brown-eyed boy might be entitled to Australian citizenship.

Pattaramon Chanbua, a 21-year-old food vendor who has two young children of her own, says she met the Australian couple only once, when the babies were born, and knew only that they lived in Western Australia state. The couple has not been publicly identified.

Australian Immigration Minister Scott Morrison called Pattaramon “an absolute hero” and “a saint,” but said the law surrounding the case “is very, very murky.”

“We are taking a close look at what can be done here, but I wouldn’t want to raise any false hopes or expectations,” Morrison told Sydney Radio 2GB. “We are dealing with something that has happened in another country’s jurisdiction.”

Morrison’s office later said in a statement that “the child may be eligible for Australian citizenship,” though it did not elaborate. Australian citizens are entitled to free health care in Australia.

Meanwhile, the couple still hasn’t fully paid Chanbua, who needs money to provide care for Gammy.

Pattaramon was promised 300,000 baht ($9,300) by a surrogacy agency in Bangkok, Thailand’s capital, to be a surrogate for the Australian couple, but says she has not been fully paid since the babies were born last December.

She said the agency knew about Gammy’s condition four or five months after she became pregnant but did not tell her. It wasn’t until the seventh month of her pregnancy that the doctors and the agency told her the twin boy had Down syndrome and suggested that she abort the fetus.

Pattaramon recalled strongly rejecting the idea, believing that having an abortion would be sinful. “I asked them, ‘Are you still humans?’ I really wanted to know,” she said.

Pattaramon, who has a 6-year-old son and a 3-year-old daughter, has had to take a break from her job to care for little Gammy. She says she approached the Thai surrogacy agency on Facebook early last year because she needed money to care for her children and pay off debts. She said she plans to file a complaint with Thai police to get the rest of the unpaid compensation money from the agency.

This issue goes much further and it highlights the issue of aborting babies with Down Syndome.

LifeNews has reported frequently on the high percentage of babies who become victims of abortion.Sometimes our articles may appear as if they’re focusing on “what if” scenarios. Sadly, this story happens all too often and here is another “what is.”

This story also highlights the problem of “designer babies”, where babies are simply not wanted if they are deemed “less than perfect” and the inequalities involved in surrogacy itself.

The Thai woman in this case was said to be very unaware of what was involved, needing to have the IVF procedure explained to her at the outset.This kind of arrangement leads to the exploitation of poor, uneducated women by those who want babies via surrogacy.