Crime

Surrogacy Extremes: This Country Arrests Surrogates While Contemplating Legalization

The country has been accelerating its arrests for surrogacy crimes, and imprisoning surrogacy participants.

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The world faces an ongoing struggle on the question of how to think about and regulate surrogacy — the act of a woman carrying to birth a child for another. Some countries, such as Germany, have strict bans on surrogacy, and even threaten prison time for those arranging or undertaking surrogacy. On the other hand, there’s California, as well as a number of American states, which provide a welcoming environment with statutory protections for all parties involved. But no country better demonstrates the policy controversies and extreme confusion on surrogacy more than the country of Cambodia.

Actually Imprisoning A Lot Of People.

While Germany and other countries threaten to imprison participators in surrogacy arrangements, few actually do it. Cambodia is the exception! After Cambodia issued a 2016 mandate that surrogacy should cease in the country, it prosecuted a number of people believed to violate that edict. The government crackdown included Tammy Davis-Charles, a nurse from Australia who was accused of falsifying birth and other records. She was sentenced to 18 months in the notoriously harsh Prey Sar prison. To make matters worse for Davis-Charles, at the time she was locked up, she had young twin boys, in addition to four other children, and was tragically diagnosed with cancer in one of her eyes. In positive news, her 18 month sentence finally ran its course, and Davis-Charles was quietly released earlier this year.

It’s great that Davis-Charles is free. However, in the meantime, Cambodia has been accelerating its arrests for surrogacy crimes, and imprisoning surrogacy participants. More than 40 women have been reportedly arrested in the last few months. Not just for arranging surrogacy arrangements or using another person to have one’s own child, but for being the actual surrogates! Reports indicate that some of these women have been forced to give birth shackled, while facing legal charges of human trafficking. Of course, that doesn’t make any sense if the crackdown on surrogacy is meant to stop the exploitation of women. Isn’t that punishing the victims?

All The Crazy Cases.

To be fair to Cambodia, the country has seen more than its fair share of wild surrogacy cases. Remember the single Japanese businessman with at least 13 babies born via surrogacy? The controversies were mainly stemming from his activity in Thailand, but a some of the businessman’s numerous offspring were either born in Cambodia via surrogacy, or being raised in Cambodia at the time the scandal broke. Or remember the grieving Chinese couples that used their deceased children’s genetic material to have a grandchild? They physically drove the frozen embryos out of the country to (you guessed it!) Cambodia, to be carried by a surrogate.

I can understand the unhappiness with all the negative press.

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Hope For Reason To Prevail.

Despite the country’s involvement in numerous surrogacy scandals, and its low threshold for throwing women behind bars, the latest news from Cambodia is actually quite hopeful. The government has been contemplating a new surrogacy law for a while, and that bill is now making progress. The chairwoman of the National Authority against Human Trafficking explained that, “The first draft of this law considered legalizing it for humanitarian reasons…but I am not sure if the working group later changed it…the key question is that should a childless couple request for a baby though surrogacy, should we allow them to do so on humanitarian grounds.”

The rhetoric is positive for those needing to turn to surrogacy to have a child. And, presumably, if those interests prevailed and surrogacy was legalized in the country, they would stop arresting and shackling birthing surrogates! Throw in a few reasonable regulations concerning number of the births/surrogates per intended parent and posthumous conception rules, and they can reduce some of the more extreme cases as well, all while supporting growing families and the women who support those families. You can do it, Cambodia! We are pulling for measured legislation to pass protecting intended parents, surrogates, children, and Australian nurses alike.

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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