Surrogate Mothers Offered Everyone an "Efficient Embryo"

BANGKOK, Thailand -- Police and health officials are investigating an international illegal "efficient embryo" syndicate after discovering a house occupied by Vietnamese women who were allegedly inseminated and kept throughout their pregnancies so an Internet-based company could sell their babies.

Some surrogate mothers said they were lured to Thailand after being promised unspecified well-paying jobs, and then had their passports seized by the Babe-101 Eugenic Surrogate company.

But a fill-in-the-blanks job application on the company's website offered females an estimated $5,000 to be a surrogate mother, and asked if they had "double-fold" or "single-fold" eyelids because some customers were concerned about how their baby's eyes would appear.

"The Vietnamese women were not forced to work here," said a woman who answered the company's Bangkok telephone number on and spoke Mandarin Chinese, but refused to give her name or position.

"They agreed to work, because earlier some of the Vietnamese women who worked with us went back to Vietnam and told their friends and referred them to us also, to do this," she said.

Asked if the company kept the women's passports, she replied: "Yes, the company keeps the passports, but when the women want to use them, the company will give the passports back to them."

Some Thai news reports said police arrested a Taiwanese man, Mr. Siang Lung-lor, on charges of human trafficking and sheltering illegal immigrants. He was described as a Babe-101 executive and manager of the Bangkok home.

But the Chinese-speaking woman said Mr. Siang was not under arrest and was still in Thailand. Mr. Siang, however, was not available for comments.

"From the government's view, these women are the victims of human trafficking [and] require suitable help and support," Surapong Kongchantuk said in an e-mail interview.

Mr. Surapong is Chairperson of the Human Rights Sub-committee on Ethnic Minorities, Stateless, Migrant Workers and Displaced Persons, at The Lawyers Council of Thailand.

Photographs of "Oriental Selected Egg Donors" showed young, cute Asian women in coy poses on the Babe-101 Eugenic Surrogate's website (Baby-1001.com).

For at least $35,000 anyone could go online and rent a surrogate mother, and pay for a sperm or "ovum donor" who was either "Eastern race" or "Caucasian" with a "complexion" of "Yellow," "Caucasian," "Brown," "African," or "Red."

The company was apparently administered in Taiwan and offered surrogate homes in Thailand and Cambodia, plus a representative office in Vietnam.

"It is critically important that there be effective cross-border law enforcement cooperation to ensure that all persons involved in this apparently criminal enterprise be held accountable," said New York-based Human Rights Watch's Asia Director, Phil Robertson, in an e-mail interview.

Thai law forbids a mother to sell her baby and The Anti-Human Trafficking Act outlaws exploitation of people for money.

"According to regulations under the Civil Registration Act, one may claim to be the mother if she is the one who gave birth to that child," Mr. Surapong, the lawyer, said.

"Once the mother sold her child to others, she may be charged with human trafficking," he said.

The Anti-Human Trafficking Act forbids "procuring, buying, selling, vending, bringing from or sending to, detaining or confining, harboring, or receiving a child" for money.

Violators face up to 10 years in prison, plus a fine.

"If the agent who brought these women to the kingdom forced them to surrogate, such agent is guilty as a human trafficker," Mr. Surapong said.

"Surrogacy is not specifically authorized by Thailand's law, but neither is it illegal," Jiraporn Thongphong, an attorney at the law firm Chaninat and Leeds, said in a separate e-mail interview.

"However, paid surrogacy arrangements are considered illegal. There is currently a draft law concerning surrogacy in the legislature but it has not yet become law," Mr. Jiraporn said.

"The Vietnamese surrogates in the news were reportedly held against their will. If these allegations prove true, their captors would be potentially guilty of criminal acts as follows: false imprisonment, kidnapping and human trafficking," Mr. Jiraporn said.

If the women intentionally worked in Thailand without an employment permit to be surrogate mothers, they could be charged with illegal immigration.

"We don't know if the [impregnation] process is done here or in Taiwan," Immigration Deputy Police Chief Pansak Kasemsant told reporters.

The Public Health Ministry, Foreign Ministry, Vietnamese Embassy, Thai Immigration Department, and Royal Thai College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists were still coordinating how to respond.

Police raided the company's expensive, modern home on February 24 and found 15 women from Vietnam, including seven who were pregnant.

"They are between 12 weeks and eight months pregnant, and we found two of the women were carrying twins," said Paskorn Chaivanichsiri, director of a government-run hospital where authorities took the women.

Seven of the women were still pregnant, two had recently given birth, and six were not pregnant, Mr. Surapong said.

It was unclear if those six women were being prepared for impregnation, if they had earlier given birth, or were support staff.

The Medical Council of Thailand was investigating what hospitals and doctors in Bangkok were allegedly involved before, during or after the pregnancies.

"If the medical staff did not know that the surrogates were being held against their will, there would be no criminal liability for the medical staff," said Mr. Jiraporn.

"The babies to be born to the Vietnamese surrogate mothers will be under the care of the Vietnamese government," Public Health Minister Jurin Laksanavisit told reporters.

There was no public indication that Thai authorities would pursue the company's customers or what charges, if any, could be brought against them.

"If the customers are in Taiwan, then this would be a matter for the Taiwanese authorities," said Mr. Robertson of Human Rights Watch.

The Babe-101 Eugenic Surrogate's website said the identities of all surrogate mothers, sperm and egg donors, and customers would be kept secret, they would never know each other, and their files would be "destroyed" after the births.

Customers could buy sperm from the company, which would create a "test tube baby" with a client's ovum, and artificially implant it in a surrogate mother.

More commonly, customers could provide their own sperm, plus an egg if available, and pay the company to artificially impregnate one of its anonymous women.

In broken English, its website said there was "no need to have sexual relationship with surrogate mother."

Women did not have to be infertile to rent someone else's womb.

"It is quite suitable for the women who desire to have kids but no time for pregnancy," the company said.

It would be "unnecessary to fear birth pangs. Unnecessary to worry about out of shapes on stature; neither to fear the intimacy fading with husband," it said in mangled English, referring to the woes of pregnancy stretch marks and postponed romantic enjoyment.

"We could create the finest procreation condition for your baby, mainly through the efficient embryo refining," so "only the superior" fertilized egg would be produced "for implanting."

Costs included the surrogate mother's travel "to Thailand," plus "egg retrieval" from a female customer or donor at an unidentified "designated hospital" to ensure "childbirth."

Surrogate mothers were kept under constant surveillance in Bangkok while incubating their fetuses.

"Security lookout in every entrance...severely control" the site and "guards routinely patrol...24 hours a day all year," the company said.

It provided "an air conditioner equipped in each room, servants will take care everything, the only thing surrogate needs to do is to look after the fetus and themselves."

Selecting a surrogate mother was easy through their website which allowed customers to specify a surrogate mother's height and weight plus her "appearance" by clicking "average," "nice," "pretty," or "no specific request."

Choices for a surrogate's education level ranged from "junior high school" to "college upward."

An online "ovum demand" page promised: "We will satisfy your request, try hard to find out superior egg. Not frozen!"

Sperm and ovum donors were asked about the color of their hair, eyes and skin, and if they had a "sexual relationship with more than 2 persons in six months."

In an "Important Notice" it said the company did "not use" Thai women as surrogates -- though the website did not reveal any surrogates' nationalities.

"The surrogacy contract is not legal in Taiwan, because [a] surrogacy agency is illegal in Taiwan. Nevertheless, it is not illegal in the country" where the company arranged artificial inseminations and surrogate mothers, it told customers.

Thai officials said the company opened more than one year ago, and it was unclear how many births had been arranged.

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