Family Law

Rich Guy Uses Surrogates To Have 13+ Kids. This Is Why We Can't Have Nice Things.

Mitsutoki Shigeta isn’t trying out for a reality show. But his life -- or more specifically, his procreation -- would certainly merit one.

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Most people in the United States are willing to accept the fact that surrogacy is a valuable tool for people to expand their families. These days, many people even know others who have either used surrogates, or become surrogates themselves, and that helps to increase the acceptance of the practice. Of course, the freedom that comes from being able to use assisted reproductive technology (ART) can also be abused in ways that shock our conscience. I hesitate to shine more light on one of these instances, but in the interest of being faithful to readers, here is the reason why some people want to take away our nice things.

Trouble in Thailand; Worse Than The Hangover 2

Mitsutoki Shigeta isn’t trying out for a reality show. But his life — or more specifically, his procreation — would certainly merit one. Shigeta is currently the subject of a major international surrogacy controversy, because he arranged for at least 13 of his genetic children to be born in Thailand. Shigeta is the father of all 13 of these children, but he used egg donors and a gestational surrogate for each one. When his situation came to light, the outrage was intense. His case, along with the Baby Gammy Case, resulted in Thailand completely banning all surrogacy arrangements with non-Thai citizens in 2015. Nice work, dude. Way to ruin it for everyone.

The facts start in 2014, when Thai authorities became aware of an unusual situation. Nine babies were living in a luxury condominium in Bangkok, with nine nannies. As a parent of four, I can certainly appreciate the desire to have a 1:1 ratio of babies to nannies. But that’s no excuse! Bizarrely, the condominium had very little furniture. It had just a few baby items, including bouncy chairs, playpens, baby bottles, and yes — diapers.

Upon further investigation, authorities learned that the children were all genetically related to, and financially under the care of, Shigeta. And he had more surrogate-born children as well. Shigeta is a tender 28 years old, unmarried, and the son of a Japanese IT billionaire. Not the worst dating profile. But he might want to save mentioning the kids until the second date.

Understandably, the press quickly dubbed the situation a “baby-factory.” Thai authorities took the nine children that they found in the apartment into custody, along with another four children who were living elsewhere in Thailand. Some babies were already being raised in Cambodia, and naturally, the concern was that all of the children were the victims of human trafficking.

A Straightforward But Complicated Victory

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But Shigeta didn’t stand down. Instead, he sued Thailand’s Ministry of Social Development and Human Security — in Bangkok’s Central Juvenile and Family Court — for custody of these 13 children. While you can’t easily pull the opinion from PACER, media reports have summarized the outcome of the lawsuit. In short, last week, Shigeta won his case in full. Most notably, the judge — after a reviewing the evidence of Shigeta’s immense wealth and detailed plans to raise the children with help from nannies — ruled that there was no evidence that the babies were part of a human trafficking effort. So that’s good at least. But it meant that the judge awarded custody over all 13 of the babies back to Shigeta.

Oh boy. Honestly, though, that’s the right decision. The alternative would have been to retroactively invalidate the then-legal surrogacy arrangements, and for the Thai government to keep custody over the children. And given the change in Thai law, it’s unlikely that this exact fact pattern will repeat itself. But what should legislators do going forward, when confronted with the task of balancing freedom to procreate with unusual stories like this?

How Many Children Is Too Many?

It is not clear how many children Shigeta has in total. At least one report indicates that by now, he may already have 20 kids. No matter the precise truth, that’s a lot! But it’s rare to see any law, in Thailand or otherwise, that caps the number of children that a person can have. Aside from the now-defunct one-child policy in China, I’m not aware of any at all. Of course, many religious people believe that every sperm is sacred, and that the more kids they have, the merrier. The major change, of course, is that surrogacy introduces a new element to the equation: the ability of those with wealth to have as many children as they want, removing biological limitations, and with no other legal parent involved.

Shigeta, of course, wasn’t trafficking humans, and his motivation does not appear to be religiously based. One report quoted a surrogacy recruiter as saying that Shigeta “said he wanted 10 to 15 babies a year, and that he wanted to continue the baby-making process until he’s dead.” She said that he told her that “he wanted to win elections and could use his big family for voting.” That would be an interesting way of winning a political race.

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Separately, a doctor involved with the surrogacy arrangements stated that Shigeta explained to him that Shigeta “had business interests overseas and wanted a large family because he trusted only his own children to take care of them.” Talk about a closely held corporation!  Whatever may be said about winning elections or running corporations, at least these children aren’t part of a trafficking effort.

I spoke with Dr. Alison Wilson, a psychologist specialized in fertility, about this situation. She didn’t know where to start with her concerns. “All the usual sensitive and complex issues with surrogacy and anonymous egg donation, including a child’s needs in knowing his or her genetic and biological history are present here. Times 13+.” Dr. Wilson was especially concerned about what appears to be the “objectification of these children.”

Keep Surrogacy Legal But Regulated

At the end of the day, this is one of those cases where I will take the bad but very rare, unconscionable situation, with all of the good that surrogacy creates for other families. Obviously, I’m all for the state robustly fighting human trafficking, and using its power for those ends. And I support regulations that place safeguards around the surrogacy process. But when people truly do jump through all of the hoops, and just want to have many, many children — which means that they have the means to raise them — I’m concerned that any laws developed just to address the rarest of cases will have unintended side effects on other cases. As they say, freedom isn’t free.

Ellen TrachmanEllen Trachman is the Managing Attorney of Trachman Law Center, LLC, a Denver-based law firm specializing in assisted reproductive technology law, and co-host of the podcast I Want To Put A Baby In You. You can reach her at babies@abovethelaw.com.

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