Baby Gammy may be given Australian citizenship, government suggests

Campaigners say infant with Down's syndrome 'abandoned' to Thai surrogate should have right to Australian healthcare

theguardian.com, Alexandra Topping, and Brendan Foster in Bunbury, Monday 4 August 2014

Six-month-old Gammy with his Thai surrogate mother Pattaramon
Chanbua. Photograph: Nicolas Asfouri/AFP/Getty Images

The Australian government has suggested that a child apparently abandoned to its surrogate mother in Thailand after being born with Down's syndrome may be given Australian citizenship.

The seven-month-old child, who is currently in hospital in Thailand for treatment of a life-threatening lung infection and will need further operations for a heart condition, has sparked a worldwide debate on the rules surrounding international surrogacy.

Pattaramon Chanbua, a 21-year-old foodseller in the coastal town of Sri Racha, is taking care of the boy, named Gammy, after an Australian couple, who have not been identified by the media, took his healthy twin sister back to their home in Western Australia.

Hundreds of thousands of pounds have been raised for the child via a viral online campaign since the story emerged.

Australia's immigration minister, Scott Morrison, told Sydney Radio 2GB on Monday that Pattaramon was "an absolute hero" and "a saint", and that the law surrounding the case was "very, very murky".

"We are taking a close look at what can be done here, but I wouldn't want to raise any false hopes or expectations," he said. "We are dealing with something that has happened in another country's jurisdiction."

Morrison's office later said in a statement that "the child may be eligible for Australian citizenship".

It is unclear if the Australian couple actually abandoned the child, as previous reports have suggested. Pattaramon has told journalists she was asked to abort her son after it was discovered he had Down's syndrome, and that the parents, from Bunbury, 171km south of Perth, would only take his healthy twin sister.

The parents told the ABC 7.30 programme that they had no knowledge of Gammy and were preparing to release a statement through their lawyers on Monday night, as media camped outside their home.

Pattaramon, however, who gave birth to twins after agreeing to be a surrogate for the couple, has said they saw Gammy in hospital. She said the agency organising the surrogacy knew about Gammy's condition four to five months after she became pregnant, but did not tell her. When it suggested in her seventh month of pregnancy that she should abort one of the twins, she refused. She was promised A$16,000 (£8,900), but has yet to see all of the money.

"If they don't know about the twin, they wouldn't be crying the day after they took the girl out of the hospital and home to Australia," she told ABC. "They probably would have not asked me to have a abortion if they truly don't know [about the twin with Down's syndrome]."

ABC said it had spoken to the biological parents, who were still claiming never to have seen Gammy, twice at their home. They reportedly said: "We saw a few people at the hospital. We didn't know who the surrogate was. It was very confusing. There was a language barrier."

Pattaramon, who lives 90km south of Bangkok with her six-year-old son and three-year-old daughter, said she would raise Gammy as if the boy was her own. "I love him," she said. "He was in my tummy for nine months. It is like my child. I love him like my own. I treat him like any other children."

An online campaign called Hope for Gammy, administered by the Australian charity Hands Across the Water, has raised around $220,000 to help Gammy since 22 July. Mora Kelly, the founder of the Children First Foundation, which brings sick children from developing countries to Australia for medical treatment, said she had discussed bringing Gammy to Melbourne for heart surgery with Hands Across the Water. "I believe that this child should be able to access our healthcare system here in Australia," she told ABC. "This child, in essence … should be an Australian citizen."

It is illegal to pay a surrogate mother in Australia, and in some states, not including Western Australia, it is illegal to pay a surrogate living overseas. An Australian woman can act as a surrogate for free, but also has the right to keep the child rather than hand it over to the biological parents.

Richard Terrins, a solicitor specialising in surrogacy at Natalie Gamble Associates, said an increasing number of couples were looking for surrogate mothers overseas because of the difficulty in finding one in their own country. In the UK surrogacy is legal, but a couple can only pay "reasonable expenses" to a surrogate mother.

"The most popular countries are the US where it is legal in some states, India, Ukraine and now this case in Thailand has been publicised," Terrins said. "There is a push for more regulation in this area, because if it was clearer where people stand both parties would be more at ease."

Gammy's case was rare, he added. "In general, people have very positive outcomes from surrogacy. More often than not, it doesn't go wrong."

The Australian father of Gammy, born to a surrogate in Thailand, has denied

 abandoning the child while taking home his healthy twin sister. Photograph:

Rungroj Yongrit/EPA

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