Thai surrogate loses custody of baby to foreign same-sex couple
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| Gay Couple with child (Photo credit: Wikipedia) |
A same-sex couple has won a custody battle with a surrogate
mother after she refused to sign documents allowing the baby to obtain a
passport and leave the country with them.
Bangkok’s Juvenile and Family Court ruled on Tuesday that
American Gordon Lake, baby Carmen’s biological father, is her legal
guardian.
Carmen’s biological mother was an anonymous egg donor. Carmen’s
surrogate mother, Patidta Kusolsang, gave Carmen to Lake and his “husband”
Manuel Santos Valero after she was born. She then changed her mind and
refused to sign documents allowing baby Carmen to obtain a passport, which
would have allowed her to leave the country with Lake and Santos Valero.
The gay couple took Kusolsang to court, arguing that Carmen, who
was born over a year ago, has the right to be raised by her biological
father. The Bangkok Postreported in May 2015 that Lake and Santos Valero were in hiding
with baby Carmen and an older baby, who was also conceived using a surrogate.
According to the couple’s change.org petition, they later sent the older baby
back to Spain because of safety concerns.
Lake claims that Kusolsang didn’t want Carmen to be raised by a
same-sex couple.According
to Lake, Kusolsang had thought they were an "ordinary family and
that she worried for Carmen's upbringing” upon learning the baby she carried
and delivered would be raised in a same-sex household.
Thai law doesn’t recognize same-sex “marriages,” and a ban on
commercial surrogacy took effect after Carmen was born, the Bangkok Post
reported.
“The bond I have with my baby can’t be traded for money and I am
not going to sell my daughter,” Kusolsang
said. She offered to return the $9,250 she was paid for
carrying Carmen.
“This clearly is human trafficking because there is money
involved,” Kusolsang’s lawyer Verutai Maneenuchnate previously said.
In 2014, an Australian couple ignited a firestorm of criticism
when they left their surrogate son, who was born with Down syndrome, in
Thailand. The coupleadmitted that they would have preferred their son be
aborted.
In addition to Thailand’s recent commercial surrogacy ban, India
has moved to
limit surrogacy to Indian
couples.
Surrogacy is illegal in Spain, where Lake and Santos Valero
live.
