Unfortunately, China Guy, exploitation has no rules.
Since free-pass wielding, complete fuckhead bio parents walk amongst us all the time, I really don’t get the outrage. (Not just yours, kambuckta et al.)
This is making the news in Thailand. Or at least the social media, because I’ve not seen much about it on local news, just BBC and the like, but the wife tells me it’s a topic on social media.
Saying it’s pretty dickish is an understatement. I think donations have topped US$100,000 so far, so hopefully the boy will be taken care of. I believe Cecil had a column once about how if an American murders another American anywhere in the world, then he can still be charged with murder in an American court. Does Australia have any similar laws regarding child abandonment? Because it is their child regardless of who did the heavy lifting come labor time. I hope the embassy is reviewing the situation now.
As for abortion, I can tell you that while it’s a widespread practice here, it is and always has been illegal in Thailand. Can someone contractually require someone to commit a crime?
A German spellchecker? 
If abortion is illegal in Thailand, I retract what I said about the surrogate being partially at fault. I mean, she could have been a tad smarter before voluntarily signing up to help these people. But abortion not being a choice puts her in a tougher situation.
pics of the little tyke in question in the article linked below. Super cute, IMHO. Also, the Australian gov is looking into helping to pay for the kid’s treatment as well. This may turn out to be a cash cow for the surrogate mom in question. She did a good thing keeping the baby, and hopefully her karma will be duly rewarded.
It’s really no problem getting a safe(-ish) abortion here, happens all the time. But it’s like prostitution, which is also very much against the law, and I think everyone knows how much that’s enforced here.
I’m the parent of a special needs child. I’m well aware of what that can entail, with the caveat that my child is relatively high functioning and maybe someday will progress to the point where my greatest ambition in life is to not outlive her by 1 day.
Fuckhead bio parents that abandon kids have a special place in hell. IMHO of course.
I just hope she continues to keep it if need be. I’m sure she is sincere in her sentiments now, but things change very quickly here, and the news spotlight won’t be on her forever.
I don’t know that the biological parents would be considered as having lawful care or charge of the child, Siam Sam. They have never claimed him as their own, and nor are they likely to; so any issue of abandonment is probably a moot point. Also, as no crime was committed in Australia, it would be up to Thai law enforcement to pursue. Hell, the bio parents are probably adequately protected under some International Consumer Law.
I don’t know that any of this is within the jurisdiction of the Embassy either, since the child wasn’t born on Australian soil, nor has he been issued an Australian passport.
I think that legally, it’s only their child if they decide to take it home.
I don’t pretend to understand the law, but I know that if I get some girl pregnant, I can be forced to take a paternity test and pony up some support if there’s a match. Seems like this would apply in to some extent in cases like these.
Ah, good. It is appearing in local news. (5 million baht = US$156,000 at today’s exchange rate.)
You are the difference between the time and love invested in creating a beautiful piece and buying off the shelf.
And Siam Sam, you’re forgetting that technically, the surrogate is but a vessel and shares no biological material. I don’t know what, other than implied rights, she really has unless she adopts (unfortunatelynamed) Gammy, I guess - if that’s at all necessary in Thailand.
So how would anyone feel if the bio parents, now that there’s a good $AU170k raised for his care, decided to claim him now?
Gammy is not an Australian citizen. His parents could apply for citizenship by descent.
I’m not outraged. If I were outraged, I’d have bunged the OP in The Pit, and would have sworn a lot more. 
I guess it just saddens me more than anything. And yeah, the Thai mum is going to get some super-dooper karma out of this, apart from some financial advantages which are going to be desperately needed for Gammy’s medical care now and in the future.
I just find it incomprehensible that a couple could abandon their biological child because of a disability like Down syndrome. It MIGHT be understandable if they were poor and unable to meet the medical costs that Gammy will incur during his life, and it MIGHT be understandable if they’d had second thoughts about a baby at all.
But to take his twin sister and leave him (regardless of their request for the birth-mother to have a termination) reeks of a sense of entitlement to Perfect Kids ™ and anything less is just not acceptable.
**
Kids as Commodities** might be the cultural norm nowadays, but there’s still times (like this) that get me shaking my head in dismay.
Meh…maybe I’m just getting old and crochetty.
Not sure about any sloper-dooper karma owing.
Biology is not a bond unless you want to make it one, and keep in mind that this boy is a baby they never wanted. Curiously, the concessions you make for ‘abandonment’ are basically to do with money - which should have nothing to do with it, and yet has absolutely everything to do with it. It is for money that Gammy exists.
All three of these people were already card carrying members of Perfect Kids ™. Otherwise they would have adopted, and she would considered the risks.
Not sure that I’m getting your message 6ImpossibleThings.
:dubious:
They went to Thailand to buy themselves a kid. Already ethical considerations have got to be low.
Adoption can be difficult and is fairly unusual in Australia. There were 129 international adoptions in 2012/13, and we have a rate of 2 domestic adoptions per thousand births, compared to 30/1000 in the US. Most people can’t " just adopt" - it can take between 2 and 8 years and cost up to $40,000. Given many couples don’t even start trying for a baby until they are in their thirties, even if they can afford it they will often age out of the program before they get to the top of the list. $11,700 for a Thai surrogate to produce a bio-child is a bargain and much easier than waiting for a non-bio adoption that may never happen.
Yep. Can’t beat convenience and a low, low price! They would have spent more on their car.
I don’t see why the couple isn’t paying child support.
If some guy gets a girl pregnant, involuntarily, and then wants her to have an abortion, he can’t make her - which is dead right, IMO: no one should be able to force another person to have an unnecessary medical procedure she doesn’t want. The guy doesn’t have to raise the baby or have any kind of emotional bond with it - but around here, at least, he does have to pay child support. Making the kid was partly his responsibility, so supporting it is partly his responsibility.
This couple *voluntarily *got this woman pregnant. No, they shouldn’t be able to make her have an abortion, for the same reasons as above. But they should have at least as much responsibility for child support as the hypothetical guy - probably more. Making it was mostly their responsibility, so supporting it should be mostly their responsibility.
And now they can have a new car AND a baby! Or $30,000 to go towards baby’s education, life, vacations, childcare, whatever. The ethics of hiring a third world womb aside (ethics clearly being the last of this couple’s worries), choosing the more affordable, faster, more possible option over the more costly, slower, potentially impossible option makes sense.