THE END OF SURROGACY
On Thursday, the Social Development and Human Security Ministry announced it would meet with military leaders to discuss fast-tracking new surrogacy legislation.
Under the proposed laws, only married couples who cannot conceive a child would be allowed to engage a surrogate. Even then, the surrogate must be a blood relative and the arrangement must be altruistic. Any surrogacy commissioned by an unmarried couple, or couple whose marriage is not legal in Thailand such as a same-sex couple, would be illegal.
Rarinthip Sirorat, director of the Office of Promotion and Protection of Children, Youth, the Elderly and Vulnerable Groups, said the ministry will meet Gen Paiboon Khumchaya, head of legal and judicial affairs for the junta, on Wednesday this week.
Ms Rarinthip said the draft legislation, known as the Protection of Children Born as a Result of Assisted Reproductive Technologies Bill, was drafted in 2004, studied by the Council of State in 2009 and approved by the cabinet in 2010.
Ms Rarinthip said the bill would resolve many of the legal challenges confronting surrogacy in Thailand, particularly questions over legal parentage and the conflict over the child’s nationality.
The current situation is “against the genetic relationship and sometimes leads to a conflict about the rights to the child between the surrogate mother and the commissioning parents”, she said. “The surrogacy bill would solve the problem.”