Japanese surrogacy dad Shigeta faces police summons

– Thailand news selected by Gazette editors for Phuket’s international community

PHUKET: Police will summons Mitsutoki Shigeta for questioning after a DNA test initially confirmed the 24-year-old Japanese man’s claim that he had fathered the nine surrogate babies recently discovered in a Bangkok condominium.

Meanwhile, Boonreung Trireungwarawat, director-general of the Health Support Department, who led a team to inspect a fertility clinic in Pathumwan district yesterday, said the facility was licensed, had operated for four to five years and treated 1,000 patients a year – 30 for surrogate services.

The department would charge the clinic with neglecting to ensure medical personnel at the clinic followed medical professional regulations under the Medical Facilities Act.

Pol Lt-General Korkiat Wongworachat, an assistant to the National Police chief, said police would take legal action against offenders but would be mindful of the impact on babies and surrogate mothers.

Shigeta would be treated as a witness. Since his children were not found to have been taken out of the country for any harmful or illegal purpose, the case did not fall within the bounds of human trafficking, he said.

An inspection didn’t find any forged documents, he said, adding that the case report should be ready within 30 days.

He believed that Dr Pisit Tantiwattanakul, owner of the All IVF clinic, would meet Lumpini police by tomorrow as invited, but Pol Colonel Decha Phromsuwan, an investigator at Lumpini Police Station, said Pisit had telephoned police on Tuesday to ask for a postponement.

Pisit was cited as saying he was busy and might not be back by tomorrow’s deadline.

In Tambon Pak Chong of Phetchabun’s Lom Sak district, several villagers dismissed the claim of a television news crew that some 20 women in the poor village were employed as surrogate mothers.

Jenjob Janteuy, 43, said the farming village had more than 800 residents and only six to seven might be working as surrogate mothers.

Prasop Saenphukha, 40, admitted that some women might have turned to surrogacy for income, but he only knew one such example in the village.

— Phuket Gazette Editors