Thai surrogacy is now dead in the water
Thursday July 31, 2014

Thai surrogacy is now dead in the water

Thursday, July 31, 2014
A couple of days ago I wrote about how there was a crackdown in Thailand about surrogacy and gender selection.

Yesterday there was a meeting between the various IVF clinics, the Thai Medical Council, lawyers and others. The outcome of the meeting is ominous for those who undertake surrogacy in Thailand: it is over.

In summary, surrogacy is now only recognised in Thailand if:

  • the intended parents are a heterosexual married couple
  • who are medically infertile
  • the surrogacy is altruistic
  • and the surrogate is a blood relative.

It is no surprise that this will exclude almost every foreigner from pursuing surrogacy in Thailand. For Australians, this is significant- as about 400 babies were born in Thailand via surrogacy in the year ended 30 June 2012 to Aussie intended parents, and that number is likely to have increased since then.

The ruling coming out of the meeting, bearing in mind that there is now a military junta in charge in Thailand, is that surrogacy will be illegal in Thailand if:

  • the intended parent or parents are unmarried under Thai law (i.e. de facto couples, same sex couples and singles are excluded)
  • any money is paid to the surrogate
  • the removal of the child from Thailand without permission of Thai authorities will breach Thailand’s human trafficking laws.

What impact this will have on those with existing arrangements, and those with embryos in Thailand, will remain to be seen. It is likely that those with embryos in Thailand- where they have donor sperm or egg- will be unlikely to use those embryos in Australia, and if they want to be used may need to use them somewhere else, such as the USA. Whether embryos will be able to be exported from Thailand is unknown in the current environment.

Watch this space. 

Request an Appointment
Fill in the form below to find out if you have a claim.
Request an Appointment - Stephen Page
Things to Read, Watch & Listen
Posthumous Conception in Victoria: Law & Consent

Posthumous Conception in Victoria: Retrieval, Consent, and the Law

Posthumous conception cases in Victoria sit at the intersection of grief, medicine, and strict statutory rules. They are deeply personal matters, but they are also highly technical. Timing matters. Consent matters. Process matters. And one of the hardest truths for families is that retrieving eggs, sperm, or embryos is often easier than being legally allowed… Read More »Posthumous Conception in Victoria: Retrieval, Consent, and the Law

IVF for Single Women in Australia: Costs & Legal Rights

Single Women and IVF: Why Sperm Costs $65,000 in New South Wales

IVF for single women is lawful across Australia, and that is the starting point many people need to hear. A woman does not lose access to fertility treatment because she is single. Clinics cannot lawfully refuse treatment on that basis, with federal anti-discrimination law providing protection across the country. That is the good news. The… Read More »Single Women and IVF: Why Sperm Costs $65,000 in New South Wales

Sperm Donation in Australia: 8 Rules You Must Know

8 Essential Rules for Known Sperm Donation in Australia

Sperm donation in Australia can be a generous, life-changing act. It can also become an expensive legal and emotional mess if people get the groundwork wrong. Known donor arrangements often begin with goodwill, trust and optimism. Unfortunately, none of those things is a substitute for legal clarity. When people talk about sperm donation in Australia,… Read More »8 Essential Rules for Known Sperm Donation in Australia

Family Law Section Law Council of Australia Award
Member of Queensland law society
Family law Practitioners Association
International Academy of Family Lawyers - IAFL
Mediator Standards Board