3 arrested in Cambodia commercial surrogacy crackdown

By Lauren Crothers

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (AA) – Three people have been arrested for commercial surrogacy in Cambodia, the latest country to adhere to measures restricting the practice.

Over the past two years, legislation banning commercial surrogacy has been introduced in countries like Thailand, India and Nepal, while the practice was legally ambiguous in Cambodia until just a few weeks ago.

The issues surrounding commercial surrogacy -- in which women are compensated for donating eggs or acting as a gestational carrier -- came to particular prominence in 2014 when a Down syndrome baby born via surrogate in Thailand was abandoned by its Australian parents.

That same year, it also emerged that a Japanese man had fathered 16 surrogate babies in Thailand.

Critics of the practice also argue that women, many of them poor, become exploited.

As a result, Thailand began shuttering clinics, while India and Nepal separately drafted laws banning the practice.

The operators of some of these clinics decamped their practices to Cambodia, where the practice was largely unregulated until late last month, when the Ministry of Health issued a proclamation banning commercial surrogacy and tightening restrictions around in vitro fertilization treatments and sperm donation.

The new proclamation, which has not been passed as law by the National Assembly, affects around 50 such clinics already operating in Cambodia.

On Monday, just weeks after the proclamation was issued, the government swooped.

The Phnom Penh Post reported on the arrest of Australian national Tammy Davis-Charles -- who runs a company called Fertility Solutions PGD -- and two Cambodians; one from the ministry of commerce and the other, a nurse.

The report said the arrests center on an article in the criminal code that “prohibits acting as an intermediary between adoptive parents and a pregnant woman” and came after a months-long investigation into the operation, which recruits women to act as surrogates and matches them with would-be parents.

According to the Fertility Solutions PGD website, Davis-Charles’ clinic was originally established in Thailand but has since been providing services in Cambodia, where one testimonial from a couple describes them having received treatment at the Cambodian Fertility Clinic.

On Nov. 4, the Fertility Solutions PGD Facebook page posted an update about the new proclamation, saying things “could go either way”.

“Please be warned do not sign up with any one trying to push you through !!!! As you will most likely be caught up in the end when baby is born, which becomes a nightmare [sic],” the post read.

On Sunday, Tammy’s son Dylan Charles left a notice on the page announcing his mother’s arrest and asking for support.