Thai Doctor faces charges in “wombs-for-hire” scandal

A Thai doctor faces charges of human trafficking and involvement in a Chinese-funded cross-border surrogacy service, using Thai women to carry babies for Chinese couples. Police say that the doctor, whose name is being withheld, previously worked at a state hospital in the Victory Monument area of Bangkok and allegedly provided “assisted-reproductive services” to surrogate Thai mothers, usually at clinics in Laos. The surrogate mothers then returned to Thailand until their third trimester, when they were sent to China to deliver the children.

Due to the Covid-19 pandemic and the closure of all borders, the surrogate mothers are now reportedly having to give birth in Thailand, instead of in China.

4 other doctors at state hospitals will also be invited to provide information to anti-human trafficking police about the racket. A woman, suspected of being a broker who allegedly handles financial transactions for the racket, was arrested in Bangkok on Monday. She was later released on 200,000 baht bail.

In February, police raided a house in Bangkok’s Lat Phrao area and found seven Thai women, all of them pregnant, and a 20 day old baby under the care of a woman, who claimed to have been paid 14,000 baht to look after the babies in the house.

SOURCE: Thai PBS World