Australian couple defends decision to leave Down’s baby with Thai surrogate<\/i><\/b><\/a>. <\/b><\/p>\nHilary Whiteman, reports, \u201cWhat was supposed to be a straightforward cash deal to carry a child for desperate parents has turned into an international spat over who said what, and exposed the darker side of a business credited with creating happiness for many couples. At the center of the debate is Gammy, a seven-month-old Down Syndrome baby with a congenital heart condition who is currently receiving treatment for a lung infection at a private hospital in Thailand. She continues, \u201cFor days, Gammy\u2019s surrogate mother, 21-year-old Thai food stall worker Pattharamon Chanbua, has been telling local and foreign press that the couple abandoned their son, taking home his healthy sister.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Western Australian couple, David Farnell and his wife are under fire. In the article, their friend tells the media that the Farnell family was told that Gammy was extremely ill and would not survive a day, at most.<\/p>\n
With the all the media attention, the husband, Farnell, has been scrutinized and reporters dug up an alarming sex offender past.<\/p>\n
Hours ago, Yahoo News published their article, Baby Gammy Court Documents Reveal Father Of Surrogacy Babies Has Been Convicted Of More Than 20 Child Sex Offences<\/i><\/b>.<\/b> \u00a0It uncovered that Farnell had 22 child sex convictions.<\/p>\n
Yahoo reporter wrote, \u201cMr. Farnell was sentenced to three years\u2019 jail in 1997 for sexually molesting two girls, who were aged 7 and 10 at the time of the offences, in 1982 and 1983. Court documents reveal he molested the children when they were visiting him at his home. The victims made complaints when they were adults, and Mr. Farnell pleaded guilty to 18 charges.\u201d The article goes on to read, \u201cIn sentencing, Justice Michael O\u2019Sullivan said the victims had been \u2018robbed of their childhood\u2019 and suffered emotional problems as a result.\u201d<\/p>\n
The article states how the Western Australia\u2019s Department for Child Protection has launched an investigation into the safety of Gammy\u2019s twin sister.<\/p>\n
And we all hope that this investigation is swift and the right decision is made regarding the best interest of this little baby girl.<\/p>\n
The Baby Gammy case and everything that is being revealed naturally shakes our inner foundation and forces us to question the core of humanity.<\/p>\n
Through it all, as heart-wrenching as it is, there is something I need to convey. Not just from an attorney standpoint, but as a woman who struggled with her fertility.<\/p>\n
Without the help of a surrogate 13 years ago, I never would have had my incredible twins.\u00a0 It\u2019s because of my surrogate\u2019s selflessness and her willingness to make my parenthood dreams come true, that I have my children.<\/p>\n
Although we don\u2019t know all sides, the case of Baby Gammy, especially in reference to Farnell\u2019s sexual predator history is very upsetting. However, I don\u2019t want this to be the focus, and ultimately, the \u201cposter\u201d for surrogacy — because it\u2019s not.<\/p>\n
Including my husband, and myself so many other couples and individuals have become parents because of a surrogate.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s what surrogates do: they help make women and men become mothers and fathers.<\/p>\n
This one case should not ruin it for the entire industry.<\/p>\n
If it did, not only would it be unfortunate to so many intended parents, but it would be a huge disservice to the industry if that\u2019s how the world-wide community responded, including The Hague and other countries.<\/p>\n
While the news on Baby Gammy continues to emerge, including Farnell\u2019s sex convictions on minors, let\u2019s not forget that this is not the norm.<\/p>\n
Baby Gammy updates are making mainstream news.\u00a0 And yes, it wholeheartedly deserves the attention.<\/p>\n
However, as a professional assisted reproductive law attorney, and also a mother from my surrogacy journey, Baby Gammy is not a representation of how surrogacy is conducted in the U.S.A.<\/p>\n
While Baby Gammy is initiating discussion on surrogacy, there must be proper educational dialogue on the positive impact that surrogacy makes to so many families.<\/p>\n
Let\u2019s not let this one unfortunate case destroy the dreams of parenthood for so many.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
We can all unanimously ag [\u2026]<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,9,10,14,1],"tags":[25,26,29,59,112,117,125,222,229,231,232,239],"class_list":["post-376","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fertility-2","category-infertility-2","category-ivf","category-surrogacy-2","category-uncategorized","tag-assisted-reproduction","tag-assisted-reproduction-techniques","tag-baby-gammy","tag-david-farnell","tag-in-vitro-fertilization","tag-infertility","tag-ivf","tag-surrogacy","tag-surrogacy-in-thailand","tag-surrogate","tag-surrogate-mother","tag-thai-surrogacy"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/surrogacy-lawyer.com\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/376","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/surrogacy-lawyer.com\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/surrogacy-lawyer.com\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/surrogacy-lawyer.com\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/surrogacy-lawyer.com\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=376"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/surrogacy-lawyer.com\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/376\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/surrogacy-lawyer.com\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=376"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/surrogacy-lawyer.com\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=376"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/surrogacy-lawyer.com\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=376"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}