BANGKOK
Six Thai women who acted as surrogate mothers for a young Japanese businessman are to sue the Thai government for the return of nine babies they bore him, local media reported Thursday.
Citing a Thai official, the Bangkok Post said the women filed a suit last month accusing the Ministry of Social Development and Human Security of illegally taking their children.
The infants, including three sets of twins, were placed in a government home in August after they were found in a Bangkok apartment.
The Japanese father, 24-year-old Mitsutoki Shigeta, fled Thailand following the discovery amid an official campaign to tackle commercial surrogacy.
The women have also alleged that the babies are not being properly cared for at the ministry’s Pakkred babies’ home in Nonthaburi province, northwest of Bangkok.
They filed the suit at the Central Juvenile and Family Court, the ministry’s Permanent Secretary Vichien Chavalit told the Post.
Shigeta made headlines in August after the discovery of the babies and his alleged claim to a surrogacy agency that he wanted to father “between 100 and 1,000 children.”
Chavalit insisted the ministry had the right to take charge of the children under Thai law.
“We do not intend to take away anybody’s child but our responsibility is to protect them as best as we can,” he said.
Another ministry official, Suwanna Pinkaew, denied that the babies were poorly treated. “Every child being cared for at the babies’ home is receiving quality childcare and their development has greatly improved,” she told the newspaper.
“The mothers are not prohibited from seeing their babies but must follow the home’s regulations.”
The mothers insist that under Thai law they are automatically regarded as the children’s legal guardians.
Pinkaew said an investigation into the “mother’s readiness, including job stability and family situation” was in progress.
After fleeing Thailand, Shigeta sent a sample of his DNA via his lawyer to prove his paternity. Thai police have rejected the sample and asked him to return to Thailand to be tested.
The case, along with the publicity resulting from a surrogate baby with Down Syndrome that was left behind in Thailand by an Australian couple, prompted the government to crack down on the surrogacy industry last year.
The national assembly is considering a new law that would impose a ten-year prison sentence on anyone convicted of involvement in paid surrogacy.
