A Thai surrogate mother has received donations from across the world to provide medical treatment for her six-month-old boy, after an Australian couple refused to take the baby on learning he had Down syndrome.
Pattharamon Janbua, 21, was left to care for her critically ill son after the Australian couple who could not have a baby paid her about £6,400 to be a surrogate mother.
The son, named Gammy, was separated from his twin sister, who is healthy and was taken by the Australians.
Mrs Pattharamon, who is married, said she became pregnant via IVF and four months later learnt that one of her children had Down's syndrome. Doctors told the Australian parents of the baby's condition, and they then said they wanted her to have an abortion.
"They told me to have an abortion but I didn't agree because I am afraid of sin," Mrs Pattharamon told Fairfax Media. She said abortion was against her Buddhist beliefs.
Mrs Pattharamon had the baby via a surrogacy agency in Bangkok and never met the couple.
"I asked the agency 'Did I have to sleep with the man?' I was an innocent young girl and I don't know about this business," she said.
"The agent told me: 'We are going to make a glass tube baby,' but I didn't understand. My husband agreed because we didn't have money to pay our debt and I didn't need to have sex with another man."
But you see, we heartless pro-lifers, we only care about babies up until birth, and then we don't care if they drop off the face of the earth. /sarcasm
The story is so wrong on so many levels. This poor woman, desperate for money, does this as a "job", doesn't want an abortion, is saddled with a child she never meant to raise and really can't afford.
But as long as women have their reproductive freedom, that's all that matters, right?
