Thai Police Free 14 Women From Illegal Baby-Breeding Farm In Bangkok

A total of 14 Vietnamese women -- half of them pregnant -- have been rescued from an "illegal and inhuman" surrogate baby breeding ring in Thailand, the AFP is reporting.

The company, called Baby 101, allegedly received orders by e-mail or via agents from childless couples offering thousands of dollars per newborn. In some cases, the male partner would also provide sperm to inseminate the women, who were being held in two houses in Bangkok and had their passports confiscated.

"Nine of the women said they had volunteered to work because they were told they would earn $5,000 for each baby," deputy immigration commander Major General Manu Mekmok is quoted as saying. "Four said they were tricked." Officials said four Taiwanese, one Chinese and three Myanmar nationals were arrested in connection with the business and charged with illegally working in Thailand. In addition, a 35-year-old Taiwanese woman, who police said ran the operation, has been charged with human trafficking.

The surrogacy service, from egg and sperm donation to the delivery of a baby, is advertised on the website believed to be run by the company for $32,000 plus other expenses. Nearly 40 women, who are identified only by a numbered code, are pictured in various poses on the site.

Public Health Minister Jurin Laksanawisit said those women carrying children would be cared for in a private hospital. "In some cases it looks like they were raped," he noted to the AFP.

Comments

[zfire]

12:10 PM on 03/30/2011

Didnt realize we were having a shortage in humans. Oh westerners, is there nothing that you think you can't buy?

[Alesana]

05:52 PM on 04/09/2011

I didn't realize that there was a reference to "Westerners" in this article, would you care to point out where you got this information?

[zfire]

11:09 AM on 04/13/2011

Oh right, cause they are selling $5,000 dollar babies on the internet to the locals!

[kolson780]

04:22 PM on 03/06/2011

I feel that a lot of people want a baby just to add to the list of "things" we as Westerners have been conditioned to believe we need......to them a baby is just another commodity, another way to compare and compete with their neighbours... just like a big house, fancy car, expensive clothes, lots of money, cute baby....
this grotesque situation fuels my case....these people will pay any amount of money to get a baby....regardless of where it comes from or how it was made..... someone who wanted to be a "parent" would be willing to adopt an older child, or at least do the homework when adopting a baby.

[who38]

01:08 PM on 03/24/2011

Well stated.  Fanned.  But may I add that it allows Daddy's genes and Mommy's body to survive and neither has to take a day off work.

[Happy Clb]

12:13 AM on 02/26/2011

so unbelievably scary.

[jbeach]

07:23 PM on 02/25/2011

Conservatives, please pay attention. Take a good look at what an unregulated free market really means.

[who38]

01:09 PM on 03/24/2011

Exactly.  Fanned.

[kareemachan]

01:56 PM on 02/25/2011

To all those desperate wannabe parents out there willing to pay big bucks for a baby: how about putting a little heart where you money is and adopt an older child? One that's not absolutely perfect and you'd have to put more into your parenting? Being a foster parent to the many, many children out there who desperately need a parent-figure?

[AeJaa]

01:29 PM on 03/30/2011

While I agree with what you've said..and I do, I'd also say you might be missing another part of the picture. It's not only that they are willing to pay some money to avoid adopting a child such as you recommend, but that they also want to do it their way, and on the cheap.

This is no more legal in Thailand than it is in the USA or anywhere in Europe. Again, it's not legal, but it is CHEAPER. They're not hitting up Germany, France, Japan, or the USA, where such a thing would cost 3 times more. They're going where they have the highest likelihood of gaining a Caucasian or Asian baby for the least amount of money possible.

"Yes Darling, you're adopted. But we want you to know, you were very wanted by both of your parents, and best of all, you were a real bargain."

[Givenchy]

01:15 PM on 02/25/2011

The human species is screwed and on it's way out, we just don't want to admit it. The events of the day are foretelling.

[who38]

01:10 PM on 03/24/2011

Exactly.  Wonder when women's uteri will hit the commodities market.

[AeJaa]

01:30 PM on 03/30/2011

Apparently in certain circles, they already have.

[NickTAZ]

11:23 AM on 02/25/2011

I get so emotionally torn-- every job shipped over seas is one less job for an American, but is also one less woman who has to sell her body and her children to eat, or one less person whose only option is the drug trade-- it's really a catch 22.

[anotherwomanfromva]

11:35 AM on 02/25/2011

So true. But people are getting desperate here in the US too. They just don't make headlines.

[whitemale08]

09:45 AM on 02/25/2011

...the consequence of IMF/World Parasites' evil policies of debt and restricted development.

If Thailand were allowed to develop instead of restricted to a third-world banana republic, cultural behaviour, such as this would fade away as Thailand's people would be improving their lot-in-life.

[who38]

01:12 PM on 03/24/2011

Agree.  And if Palestinians were allowed to develop their country,  they wouldn't need to sell their kidneys.

[medicontheedge]

09:41 AM on 02/25/2011

the Handmaidens Tale come to life..... we can truly be a despicable species...

[Sunstreaked]

10:00 AM on 02/25/2011

And don't for one minute think it can't happen here in America. Republicans are working right this minute on stripping rights from women. Once the government controls the uterus, this is indeed the next logical step.

[pleasebereasonable]

10:35 AM on 02/25/2011

A little bit of a leap, don't ya think?

[Suzie Kidnap]

12:46 PM on 02/25/2011

it already did happen. read the history of maternity homes in the united states between 1945 until 1973. pregnant unmarried women were routinely stripped of their babies for the adoption market. if they did not succumb to the brainwashing, they were coerced, and sometimes even threatened, to sign papers.

roe v wade, the pill, and changing social norms put an end to it domestically. so, the supply side of the adoption market went overseas. what you have here in thailand is an example of the supply side of reproductive harvesting. women as incubators, producing a commodity for consumption in the western world. commodifying the womb, and more importantly, commodifying defenseless newborns. a baby import business, using the cheapest labor imaginable. those markets are now drying up as nations around the globe catch on to the game.

don't think the republicans aren't trying to bring back those dark days before 1973 here in the good old usa. in that time, there was not access to either contraception or abortion. people born after 1973 may understand that abstractly, but they have no concrete clue as to how that actually played out in women's lives.

take away access to abortion and contraception,and voila!
an ample supply of healthy white newborns for the adoption market. as a survivor of the supply side of the adoption business in 1968, i have a few words of advice to everyone reading this:

GUARD YOUR DAUGHTERS!!!!! and if anyone says the word "adoption" to you....run away.

[kansasbashkir]

09:32 AM on 02/25/2011

This is past gross into disgusting and surreal. And I'm guessing it's a "business" fueled by the wealthy. Bizarre, sick and twisted. I can't imagine what those women have been through...or the babies.
We are so out of balance.

[Suzie Kidnap]

01:47 PM on 02/25/2011

it is totally a business. why else would anyone do this?

[Checquoline]

08:47 AM on 02/25/2011

There are children in this country who need homes. I don't understand why people want foreign babies.

[EmmaLib]

10:46 AM on 02/25/2011

That was my thought too..... millions of children needing homes here, that do not need to be purchased. Very sad.

[mikey09]

11:36 AM on 02/25/2011

Sad truth....Americans don't want "children" to adopt, they want "babies".

[Alesana]

05:55 PM on 04/09/2011

I was a lucky one. I was adopted at age 5.

[PaticaDeGato]

08:30 AM on 02/25/2011

The Bible condones slavery, so heck, why not baby mills (a natural extension of the practice).

That said, Thailand is Buddhist which goes to show that there's ***holes of all faiths.

[DSOTM]

09:40 AM on 02/25/2011

Stop making this about faith, this is about greed and inhumanity.

[who38]

01:18 PM on 03/24/2011

Isn'[t religion good at promoting greed and inhumanity?  Why else would churches, synagogues, and temples contain so much wealth while their sheeple live in poverty and pain?

[peegan]

10:10 AM on 02/25/2011

Yes, I am SURE it was devote Buddhists running this operation.

[PaticaDeGato]

11:05 AM on 02/25/2011

Many criminals are rather devout.

[who38]

01:21 PM on 03/24/2011

Why not?  Hasn't the Catholic church been promoting pedophilia for years by not removing criminal priests from communities?

[Jolimont]

06:22 AM on 02/25/2011

So sad. People will do anything to have a child. Anything whatsoever. I think the adoptive parent's motives have to be questioned, they are creating a market for this human traffic, even if they mean well, it's criminal.

[who38]

01:23 PM on 03/24/2011

Baby Daddy  was just paying for his sperm container; how is that criminal?  After all, Tea-baggers support the right of rapists to choose the mothers of their children.

[mistlesuede]

11:30 PM on 02/24/2011

Human puppy mills. How absolutely disgusting.

[DSOTM]

09:41 AM on 02/25/2011

And yet when Michigan voted to ban puppy mills, it was the Tea Party to the rescue saying that it was government intrusion into private business

[mistlesuede]

11:50 AM on 02/25/2011

I was just reading that in Missouri a bill to clean up puppy mills and help reinforce care for animals called Prop B PMCPA is already in trouble. It was to go into effect in November and was the best thing that's been done so far.
Now the new teapublicaSns in their Senate have introduced SB113 which will undo all of the good that was finally passed in the other bill! They are voting soon and people should start flooding Missouri's Senator's offices with calls and emails.
I'm in NY and I wish I could do something.
This human (puppy mill) story and these puppy mill stories really bother me.

[who38]

01:24 PM on 03/24/2011

At least the puppy owners can drop the animal off at the pound if they discover that they do not want it.  What will happen to these children?

[Alva Mahaffey-Johnson]

10:41 PM on 02/24/2011

This is sick! Slavery continues and the selling of people is alive and world.

[who38]

01:32 PM on 03/24/2011

Watch "Dirty Pretty Things" on Netflix.  I saw it in a theater.  At the end of the movie, everyone exited in silence.  That doesn't happen often.