A Surrogate mother's plight in Thailand

Thailand is a favored destination for choosing surrogate mothers as there are no strict laws against surrogacy. Then the Thai women are beautiful, healthy and willing to become a surrogate mother, mostly driven by the need for money.   The price for surrogacy is nominal and in order to take care of hospitalization

 etc there are good hospitals in Bangkok. It was those considerations that made the medically infertile Australian couple to go to Thailand and meet an agent for arranging a surrogate mother. The couple did not directly contact the surrogate, their agent did all things for them like finding out suitable mother, fixing fees  and the hospitalization etc

. The surrogate mother the agent chose was 21 year old Pattharamon Janbua hailing from a village in Chon Bun province of Thailand, 90Kms from Bangkok and she has two other kids aged three and six. She agreed to become surrogate mother out of poverty. She was offered $15000/ which she found satisfactory to educate her children and pay back outstanding debts.

By the time the pregnancy reached 4 month old Doctors had found out that it was twins and one baby suffered down syndrome, a genetical disorder affecting growth and personal abilities. In such cases the Doctors advise abortion and in this case also the Australian couple had advised their agent to get the pregnancy aborted. But the mother, Ms Janbua refused to oblige and she said that being a Buddhist she  would not allow it.

Thus the pregnancy progressed and she gave birth to a baby girl and boy of which the boy, named Gammy suffered from down syndrome and congenital heart condition.

The agent  came to her  after she delivered the babes and took away the healthy baby girl leaving her with the sick kid , Gammy who needed expensive treatment to lead normal life. In addition to the Gammy’s routine treatment for the Down syndrome he suffered some lung ailments also which needed urgent medical attention. Janbua was virtually left high and dry.

The money Janbua got as surrogate mother was insufficient to meet even the immediate medical expenses and knowing her plight some people helped her put up a campaign named ‘ Hope for Gammy’ via the Newspaper and the ad read as such:  ‘ six month old baby Gammy was born in Bangkok with Down syndrome and congenital heart condition, He was abandoned by his family and is being cared by a young Thai woman who does not have the funds for the desperately needed medical treatment’ The ad concluded with a request for donation.

The request somehow got wide publicity and good response and she got more than $120000 in a couple of days. Now Ms.Janbua can give her Gammy the required love and care. She said she did not expect such overwhelming response. The identity of the Australian couple has not been revealed. They certainly would not have thought that their secret mission for a babe would wind up with such bad publicity against them. Everyone blames them as mean-spirited . They actually brought down the status of parenthood to a level of shopping.

In the end Ms Janbua advises her Thai friends not to stand as surrogate mothers. She asks them to think as to who will take care of the child if something goes wrong, like her own case.




 Images from Google

The Facebook and Money transfer

The migrant workers all over the world have to seek the services of money-transfer firms in regular

intervals to send money home. The fees of such money transfer are exorbitant and a chunk of the hard earned money goes to those firms which do the service.

On thinking about it, it may appear to be a welcome move on the part of the Facebook to start the money transfer business between account holders especially in a developing country like India. There are millions of migrant workers from India in various countries and they along with their spouses have Facebook accounts already. They must be willing and ready if with a few clicks here and there they can transfer money to the home along with their love and regards.

Now the cheapest method for a migrant worker to transfer money home is through the banks. But a majority of workers do not prefer the Bank- transfer as it is not only cumbersome but also practically difficult  to find time for the workers to go to Bank, stand in the queue, fill up forms and arrange the transfer. They, therefore, choose the informal route of Hawala payment for which the fee is almost four to five percent of the money transferred. The money transfer via the Indian Postal service is also both cumbersome and as much expensive

The Facebook platform is familiar and a meeting place for friends and relatives at the leisure time. If the Facebook makes the money transfer possible for a nominal fee the account holders would be happy to do business despite its shortcomings. But the scheme is in the infant stage in all places except in the U S. The Facebook has applied for permission at the Ireland office of the European Union to start the scheme at Europe and has not got the reply. Similarly it is in such an uncertain stage in  other parts of the world also.

In addition to the question of sanction from respective Governments it is also a big task for the company to start global business and carry it out without a hitch. The question is doing the money transfer safely and easily on a global basis  There is always the possibility of criminals roaming through the Facebook accounts for pilfering money.

Then it is also not possible for the Facebook to physically carry the money to the account holder’s home like the messages, even if the sender can avoid a journey to the Bank the recipient has invariably to reach the Bank to get the cash. In other words the Facebook cannot do business as the Hawala people do it who do not take a rest until the cash is handed over to the addressee in person wherever he is.

 The Facebook knows the enormity of the task and the world premiere of the scheme is waiting just on account of it.