EXCLUSIVE

Overseas surrogacy battle moves into Cambodia

Thailand introduced strict legal guidelines surrounding surrogacy following the baby Gammy incident, and neighbouring Cambodia is quickly filling demand. [CLICK HERE or on IMAGE to watch EXCLUSIVE VIDEO]

'Somebody has to be the icebreaker': Aussies seeking babies turn to Cambodia

 Sydney Morning Herald | 29 October 2015

• Babies allowed to leave Nepal
• Gay couple and Thai surrogate mother in custody tug-of-war
• Australian couple leaves Down syndrome baby with Thai surrogate

Bangkok: A booming surrogacy industry chased out of Thailand and Nepal has turned to Cambodia, where many Australians are ignoring warnings from their own government not to seek surrogacy services.

Up to 20 Australian couples have entered into surrogacy arrangements shrouded in secrecy in Cambodia, and many more have been considering the move, according to sources in Phnom Penh and Australia.

The Australian government's travel advisory smartraveller.gov.au warns the act of commercial surrogacy, or commissioning commercial surrogacy, is illegal in Cambodia, with penalties including imprisonment and fines.

But at least 14 surrogacy clinics and agencies offering services to foreigners have opened in Phnom Penh since Thailand shut down its multimillion-dollar surrogacy industry after the Baby Gammy scandal last year.

Surrogacy groups fear that foreign biological parents and their babies born to surrogate mothers will become entangled in Cambodia's murky and corrupt legal system, where there are no laws dealing directly with surrogacy and Cambodian authorities could treat surrogacy under draconian human trafficking laws.

A sperm being implanted into an egg in a promotional video for a Cambodian fertility clinic. Photo: Supplied

They also warn that foreign parents engaging with surrogates in the country without legal protection are putting the surrogates, themselves and any babies they pay for at risk.

Many of the surrogates recruited to carry babies to be born in Cambodia are Thai women bypassing laws that criminalise commercial surrogacy in Thailand, raising the possibility of legal problems blocking parents taking their babies home from Phnom Penh after births.

More than 20 Australian couples were until last night among at least 50 families trapped in Kathmandu, unable to take their surrogate babies home after a Nepalese court outlawed commercial surrogacy in that country.

The twin babies of father "Nick Martin", born to a surrogate in Nepal and denied exit visas for six weeks. The babies were finally given visas on October 29. Photo: Supplied

In Cambodia, some local women have been recruited to carry babies but IVF and surrogacy are not socially condoned or widely understood in the impoverished country's conservative and deeply Buddhist society, forcing recruiters to look to Thailand, where there is an existing surrogacy network, through social media.

"It's a disaster waiting to happen," said Sam Everingham, the founder and director of Families Through Surrogacy, an Australian-based surrogacy group, who recently visited Cambodia.

Surrogacy agencies and some lawyers in Phnom Penh are contradicting the Australian government's advice, telling intending parents that Cambodia's criminal code does not apply to surrogacy and refers only to human trafficking and adoption.

Pattaramon Chanbua, 21, with her son Gammy in 2014 The Baby Gammy scandal led to Thailand closing surrogacy clinics across the nation and driving clients to Cambodia. Photo: AP

Daniel Carrington, an Australian-based case manager for IP Conceptions, one of the agencies that have opened in Phnom Penh, says he explains the risks of going to Cambodia to Australians seeking surrogacy services in South-east Asia, rather than in faraway countries like Mexico, where commercial surrogacy is legal.

"The waters will be tested in Cambodia when the first babies are born next year, when parents will be looking to exit the country," he told Fairfax Media. "Somebody has to be the icebreaker."

Mr Carrington, from Newcastle, said some shady agencies now operating in Cambodia do not tell intending parents of the risks involved in engaging services in Phnom Penh.

Darren Pinks, wife Clair and six-week-old Saffron, who wa born to a surrogate mother in India in 2012, before India shut down surrogacy services available to Australian clients. Photo: Jon Reid

But he said his US-owned company lays out all the facts for intending parents, including what the Australian government says, as well as providing other advice from lawyers in Phnom Penh who organise surrogacy contracts.

"The lawyers believe there will be no issue … they have spoken to officials in the Cambodian government who don't see a problem," said Mr Carrington, who with his partner James Carrington brought surrogate-born twins Elijah and Hannah home from Thailand last year.

Mr Carrington said his company has Australian parents looking to go Cambodia but does not have an Australian couple in the country at the moment.

Philip Copland and Sam Everingham with their surrogate daughters, Ruby (in purple) and Zoe, in 2013. Photo: Sahlan Hayes

"I tell intending parents I am here in Australia. I am here to hold your hand all the way through, unlike other agents who are half a world away," he said.

Some of the surrogacy agencies that have opened in Phnom Penh are linked to or were owned by agencies that were raided and shut down in a crackdown on surrogacy in Thailand after Fairfax Media revealed the plight of Gammy, a then critically unwell baby with Down Syndrome who was abandoned in Thailand by his Australian biological parents.

One of them, New Life, has engaged intending parents from Australia, China, Singapore, Britain and Taiwan at its Phnom Penh office.

One of the most popular agencies for Australians before it was shut down in Thailand, the Georgia headquartered New Life arranged babies in the notorious "Baby Factory" case where a 24-year-old Japanese man paid for 16 surrogate babies, prompting an outcry in Thailand.

New Life offers on its website Cambodia packages up to 65 per cent less than those in the US and Europe, claiming "excellent surrogates and egg donors that include young, capable and healthy candidates with a proven track record".

Most Cambodian agencies are advertising packages between US$40,000 and US$60,000.

Under Cambodian family law it appears that a surrogate mother and biological foreign father would have equal parental rights, lawyers say.

There is no mechanism under the law for the surrogate to surrender her parental status, but her consent would be required for a newborn child through surrogacy to leave Cambodia.

Mr Everingham, from Families Through Surrogacy, said intending parents should not engage services in Cambodia until or unless laws are introduced protecting the rights of surrogates, intending parents and children.

"There is a clear risk of the Cambodian government cracking down, as occurred in Thailand and Nepal, potentially due to lobbying by anti-surrogacy activists or foreign governments," he said.

Mr Everingham said the fact that Australian couples are turning to Cambodia shows that the Australian government must act on the recommendation of a bipartisan committee in Canberra last year to hold an inquiry into surrogacy in Australia, where the practice is illegal except in the Northern Territory, where it is unregulated.

Residents of NSW, Queensland and the ACT are also banned from entering commercial arrangements overseas, but the law is not enforced.

Mr Everingham said Attorney-General George Brandis has been sitting on the recommendation for months. "Until something is done Australians will continue to travel overseas into risky situations," he said.

The head of the Family Court, Chief Justice Diana Bryant, has called for Australia to legalise commercial surrogacy, which she said would help counter the "dark side" of the international trade, where Australians account for 25 per cent of all international surrogacy arrangements.