Anticipating the legalization of gay marriage later this year, the Thai health department boss is advocating revision of the Surrogacy Act to allow homosexual couples to adopt a baby via a surrogate mother. Director general Atchara Nithiapinyasakul said the move was part of her recommendations to tackle the falling birth rate in Thailand where annual deaths now exceed births. Thailand is facing the prospect of a severe shortage of indigenous employees and intense international competition for more guest workers from neighboring countries.
Thailand’s laws are now strict after a slew of scandals in the past where Thai doctors and Chinese agents were involved in international surrogacy syndicates. Current legislation bans all commercial surrogacy and largely limits heterosexual couples who have been married at least three years – at least one of whom must be a Thai national – to having the services of a female relative who is willing to carry and give birth to the baby solely for altruistic reasons. All other avenues such as surrogacy tourism or international or cross-border surrogacy are banned, as is homosexuality in this context.
Dr Atchara said that the collapsing number of births in Thailand needed urgent attention lest, by the end of the century, 14 million Thais of working age will have the responsibility for the care of nearly 2 million pensioners. She said paid maternity and paternity leave, child allowances and fertility clinics were all needed as well as changes in the current law. “This is not just a matter of fertility but also of national security,” she said in her proposals to the Thai Cabinet stressing that the pool of economically active Thais is shrinking fast.
Assuming that gay marriage soon becomes legal in Thailand, which is very likely in view of the support by major political parties, the surrogacy issue is one of many diverse subjects – including pensions and wills – which will require attention in numerous laws and directives often dating back decades. Many health experts agree that the legalization of the surrogacy industry would better protect the natural mother’s rights and stamp out the underground market. Some go further and argue that the sending of frozen eggs and sperm abroad should also be legalized to create income for the national coffers.
