Thai police free women from surrogate baby ring
By AFP,
AFP
| 02. 24. 2011
Fourteen Vietnamese women, seven of them pregnant, have been rescued from an "illegal and inhuman" surrogate baby breeding ring in Thailand, officials said Thursday.
Police said the company, called Baby 101, received orders by email or via agents from childless couples and in some instances the male partner would provide sperm to inseminate the women.
"This is illegal and inhuman. In some cases it looks like they were raped," said Public Health Minister Jurin Laksanawisit, who added that those carrying children would be cared for in a private hospital.
Vietnamese women, some of whom were offered thousands of dollars per baby, were held in two houses in Bangkok and had their passports confiscated.
The women were freed after they were able to send an email to the Vietnamese embassy, which tipped off Thai authorities.
"We found 13 people in two houses when we searched, we found one more today at the hospital," said Lieutenant colonel Prasat Khemaprasit, of Immigration police. The woman at the hospital had just given birth.
"Nine of the women said they had volunteered to work because...
Related Articles
By Mackenzie Mays, Los Angeles Times | 10.29.2024
SACRAMENTO — Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a bill on Sunday that requires large health insurance companies to cover in vitro fertilization — a win for reproductive health advocates amid nationwide concerns about the future of access to fertility treatments.
The bill also...
Reproductive rights have been a flashpoint in national politics for decades, with the stakes surging after the Supreme Court shredded the right to an abortion. In the current presidential campaign, the battle over abortion has swelled and morphed to encompass in vitro fertilization (IVF), which has now moved rapidly from widely accepted to partisan hot button.
This dramatic shift was highlighted by the February decision of the Alabama Supreme Court that granted personhood rights to frozen IVF embryos, signaling that...
By Deirdre Walsh , NPR | 09.17.2024
Senate Republicans blocked a Democratic bill to provide a nationwide right to IVF treatments. It was the second time Senate Democrats tried and failed to advance the measure.
Reproductive freedom has remained a central issue in several Senate contests that...
By Matthew Rozsa, Salon | 09.15.2024
When a person with a uterus decides to freeze their eggs, any number of things can go wrong. Ice crystal can form, killing an otherwise viable ovum. A fertilized egg may fail to properly implant, or the egg may...