Child protection officers try to contact baby Gammy's Australian parents
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Version 0 of 1. Child protection officers have twice tried to visit the Australian parents of baby Gammy, who was left in Thailand with his surrogate mother when the couple returned home with his twin sister. The father, David John Farnell, aged in his 50s, was convicted of child abuse offences in the 1990s and was jailed for three years for indecently dealing with twin girls under 10, according to court documents seen by Guardian Australia. Western Australia child protection officers visited the couple’s home in Bunbury on Tuesday and Wednesday but there was no response either time. A spokeswoman for the state’s child protection department said they had been asked to investigate the “suitability” of the parents by police. The couple are parents to a girl born to 21-year-old surrogate, Pattaramon Chanbua, in Thailand six months ago. Pattaramon has accused the couple of abandoning the girl’s twin brother, Gammy, who has Down’s syndrome and a heart condition. The couple deny the claims and after initially saying they were not aware of Gammy, the couple said on Tuesday they left him at Pattaramon’s request, believing he would not survive for long. Australia’s prime minister, Tony Abbott, called the case tragic but stopped short of saying the government would attempt to intervene. Australia’s surrogacy laws are the responsibility of the states. “When it comes to baby Gammy, obviously, no one wants to see an unwanted child brought into the world. The really encouraging thing that has arisen from this is the fact that so many people want to help baby Gammy and baby Gammy’s mother. That’s what I would rather dwell on,” he told Channel Seven. “The fact that notwithstanding the difficult circumstances that baby Gammy has found himself in and that baby Gammy’s mother is in, there are lots of people that are there to help. That’s the encouraging thing. The difficulty with the law in a situation like this is that the law can often make complex, difficult and very personal situations worse and so I am in no hurry to rush legislatively into this particular situation.” Authorities inspected the Thai surrogacy clinic involved in the case on Tuesday, a Thai public health ministry official told Reuters, requesting anonymity as he had not been authorised to speak publicly. He declined to identify the clinic. The head of the clinic could face up to a year in jail and a 20,000 Thai baht ($620) fine if found to have violated Thai regulations, the official said. Commercial surrogacy is against the Medical Council of Thailand’s code of conduct. Surrogacy is permitted if blood relatives of the couple are the surrogates, although exceptions are permitted if no suitable surrogate is available. The clinic was licensed to undertake surrogacies permitted under that regulation, the official said. |