Surrogacy Services for Foreigners Banned by Thailand Parliament

The interim Parliament of Thailand has passed a law banning foreigners from seeking surrogacy services in the country. Over the last few years, Thailand had been one of the top destinations for 'fertility tourism' which enables foreign couples to have children through Thai surrogate mothers. But the flourishing 'rent-a womb' industry has not been without hits share of criticism and was rocked by several scandals last year.

One case involved a Japanese man who is said to have fathered at least 16 children through surrogates. He was dubbed by the local media as the 'baby factory'. There was also another case where an Australian couple, chose to abandon one of the twins who was diagnosed with Down syndrome. They left with the healthy twin sister while refusing to take care of the twin brother who was left under the Thai mothers care.

Thailand's National Legislative Assembly member Wanlop Tankananurak said, "This law aims to stop Thai women's wombs from becoming the world's womb. This law bans foreign couples from coming to Thailand to seek commercial surrogacy services."

Preliminary approval for the law was made in August last year before it was passed by the Assembly on Thursday. The new law stipulates that surrogate mothers must be Thai and over the age of 25 years. He went on to add that those who violate the law would be punished with a 'severe prison sentence.'

Critics are worried over the move to ban commercial surrogacy services in Thailand. They fear that by banning, people will now find it much harder to get access to quality health care and physician consults.

Surrogacy services in developing countries like Thailand and India turn out to be much cheaper. One full term surrogate pregnancy here typically costs $60-70,000 while it could be as much as $200,000 in the U.S.