In 2014, LifeNews reported on twin baby Gammy who was abandoned by his biological parents after their surrogate refused abortion. Baby Gammy was born with Down syndrome to Thailand surrogate, Pattamaron Chanbua. After the birth, his parents, David and Wendy Farnell, fled to Australia with his healthy sister; and in August they took to Australia’s “60 Minutes” to defend their decision to abandon their son.
David Farnell, who’s a convicted sex-offender, said that he demanded a refund on his surrogacy fees and would have aborted the baby had he known earlier that his baby had Down syndrome. However, he denies that he ever told Chanbua to have an abortion when she was pregnant with Gammy. Farnell also claimed that his baby girl Pipah is safe with him despite his past as a sex offender.
He said, “I am not going to harm my little girl. She [Pipah] will be 100 per cent safe because I know I will do everything in the world to protect my little girl. I have no inclinations … They have 100 per cent stopped. I don’t have this urge to do anything anymore.”
Now, unbelievably, Farnell is trying to collect charity money for his son’s medical costs.
According to The Australian, so far $235,062 has been raised to help Gammy through the GoFundMe website and Hands Across the Water foundation.
The founder of Hands, Peter Baines, said “We have no information as to the justification the Farnells, or their legal team, are making to support the application for access to the funds. We take this matter very seriously and we are doing all that we can to defend this action to ensure the money donated remains for the care of baby Gammy, which we believe was the intent of those who so generously donated the funds.”
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Mr. Baines said the foundation had developed a long-term strategy to support Gammy based on advice about his current and future needs. So far, the funds have been used to buy Gammy’s Thai family a more suitable home and to pay for his medical costs.
Minister Helen Morton said in November that a comprehensive safety and wellbeing assessment had been conducted and a safety plan had been developed for Pipah.
A department spokeswoman confirmed on Tuesday that the matter remained with the Family Court. Premier Colin Barnett said he was surprised to hear the Farnells were trying to access the money but did not think they would be successful.
