Thai surrogate mother refuses to entrust newborn to homosexual couple
Bangkok (AsiaNews / Agencies) - Patidta Kusolsang, a young Thai woman and surrogate mother, has refused to sign the papers that would allow a gay couple (one American and one Spanish) to adopt the child she bore and leave the country .
The two men, Allan Gordon Lake and Manuel Valero, report that Patidta, who is not the biological mother of the child, decided to keep the child, Carmen, with her just when they were about to leave Thailand. Lake said that the woman "had problems" with the sexual orientation of the couple and did not show up last January in Bangkok to sign the documents for Carmen's passport: "We've been here six months now and our life is destroyed - he said - Our families have lost the first six months of the wonderful life of Carmen. "
Patidta had no immediate comment on the matter.
Thailand is a popular destination for foreign couples seeking surrogate parenting services, because of its lax regulation and low costs, compared to other countries.
This is not the first case of a dispute of this kind in the country. Some time ago an Australian couple decided to adopt only one of twins born commissioned by surrogacy, leaving the child born with Down syndrome with its surrogate mother.
In an effort to avoid these scandals, the Thai government approved in February a law banning foreigners seeking surrogate services. The law will come into force on July 30 but Lake and Valero have not violated it, as they contracted the service already last year.
Called on by the couple to intervene, the US ambassador in Bangkok, Melissa Sweeney, said that US citizens in Thailand must submit to Thai law and that "according to American law, the Department can not provide a passport to a minor without the consent the legal parents or guardian".
Thai law also recognizes the woman who gives birth to the child as the child's mother and those who apply for kinship not to have an automatic right to the child.
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