Thailand stops US and Australian couples leaving with surrogate babies: advocate

By Byron Kaye SYDNEY (Reuters) – U.S. and Australian couples attempting to leave Thailand with babies born by surrogate mothers have been stopped at the airport and prevented from leaving the country in recent days, an Australian surrogacy advocate said on Friday. The crackdown follows the case of an Australian couple – one of whom is a convicted child sex offender – who left a male twin surrogate baby with Down Syndrome in Thailand, bringing only his sister back to Australia. The incident, made public earlier this month, unleashed an international outcry over a shadowy business that rights groups say preys on poor and vulnerable women in countries such as India and Thailand. In response, Thailand's new military government gave preliminary approval on Wednesday for a draft law to make commercial surrogacy a criminal offense.