A PAIR OF Australian parents are accused of abandoning their baby born with Down Syndrome to a surrogate.
Australian news outlets have been reporting the story of ‘Gammy’, a baby boy born with a twin sister who did not have Down syndrome.
Australian news outlet 9 News said that a surrogate was reportedly offered $AUS11,700 by a Bangkok-based surrogacy agent to bear a child for an Australian couple.
When one of the twins she became pregnant with through IVF was discovered to have Down syndrome and a congenital heart condition, the parents are alleged to have taken the girl, and left the boy with his surrogate mother.
The mother, Pattaramon Chanbua (21) has two children aged six and three, and in an interview with ABC News in Australia she said she took on the surrogacy due to poverty and a need for money to educate her children.
She said the situation was the adults’ fault and she felt sorry for baby Gammy.
“I chose to have him, not to hurt him,” she said. “I love him like my own.”
Raising funds
A fundraising site has been set up which has raised almost $AUS96,000, which it says will go towards Gammy’s family.
An organisation called Hands Across the Water is said to be the holding organisation for the funds.
Surrogate
Gammy is currently in hospital receiving treatment for a lung illness.
His parents have not been named or commented to the media in their home country.
Donations have poured in from around the world for baby Gammy:
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