March 29, 2024

Surrogate baby ring busted in Bangkok

Bangkok police have uncovered a baby-breeding racket based in Taiwan using at least 14 surrogate mothers from Vietnam. One woman was in hospital delivering her baby and 13 had been locked up in two houses and their passports had been confiscated.

Contented surrogage mothers in BangkokBangkok police have uncovered a baby-breeding
racket based in Taiwan using at least 14 surrogate mothers from Vietnam. One
woman was in hospital delivering her baby and 13 had been locked up in two
houses and their passports had been confiscated. “Nine of the women said
they had volunteered to work because they were told they would earn $5,000 for
each baby. Four said they were tricked,” said Major General Manu Mekmok,
commander of investigations for the immigration department.

Four Taiwanese, one Chinese and three
Myanmar nationals were arrested and charged with illegally working in Thailand.
The head of the operation, a 35-year-old Taiwanese woman, was charged with
human trafficking.

The company organising the surrogates has a
website,
www.baby-1001.com,
which explains the business. Every successful pregnancy costs about US$32,000. The
company acknowledges that commercial surrogacy is illegal in Taiwan, but says
that it has branch offices in Bangkok and Phnom Penh. No records are kept
linking the birth mother and the baby after the birth.

In slightly fractured English, the company lists some
notable advantages of hiring a surrogate mother:

  • “The consignors can continue to work without worrying about losing job
    or business intermission. It is quite suitable for the women who desire to have
    kids but no time for pregnancy.
  • Unnecessary to fear birth pangs.
  • Unnecessary to worry about out of shapes on stature; neither to fear the
    intimacy fading with husband.
  • Embryo selecting can pick up the best quality one to implant into young
    and health surrogate mother. The finest combination surely makes you be more
    confident to your child.”

The ultimate sales pitch, however, is Chinese longing to have
descendants: “No descends is somewhat a regret for
one’s family, with our assistance, you can successfully carry on.”

“It is really really critical for the investigators to get to the
bottom of this,” said Phil Robertson, of New York-based Human Rights
Watch.”This is human trafficking in its most perverse and horrific form,
sexual exploitation and rape, the mind boggles that something like this
could happen.”~ AFP,
Feb 24



Michael Cook
surrogacy
Taiwan
Thailand