'Desperate' Australian couples unable to leave Cambodia with surrogate babies

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By Anne Barker

 

Around 10 Australian couples have been left in legal limbo in Cambodia — unable to bring surrogate babies home months after their birth — as they wait for the Government in Phnom Penh to draft new laws on surrogacy. The Cambodian Government has begun drafting legislation that will likely ban commercial surrogacy but may allow some form of altruistic surrogacy under strict regulations.

 

The move comes after an Australian nurse, Tammy Davis-Charles, was charged in November with running an illegal surrogacy clinic in Phnom Penh. She is still in custody awaiting trial. At the time of her arrest there was no law against surrogacy in Cambodia. Instead, Davis-Charles was charged by police who deal with human trafficking.

 

Now six government ministries are drafting Cambodia's first surrogacy legislation, with consultation from the United Nations. A spokesman from the Ministry of Women's Affairs said officials were examining similar laws in Australia, Thailand and India, though it was too early to say exactly what the new laws would include.

 

read more http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-02-23/australian-couples-with-surrogate-babies-stuck-in-cambodia/8294810