Australian couple accused of rejecting Down's baby say they never knew he existed

 
Allegations: surrogate mother Pattaramon Chanbua with Gammy, who she claims was abandoned by his biological parents

An Australian couple have denied abandoning one of the twins they had through a Thai surrogate — claiming they never knew of the existence of the boy, who has Down’s syndrome.

The unnamed couple made the claims after the surrogate mother, 21-year-old Pattaramon Chanbua, said they took only the boy’s healthy twin sister.

The plight of six-month-old Gammy, who also has a hole in his heart, has prompted calls for the reform of surrogacy services in Australia, with the country’s government considering intervention.

But the couple at the centre of the controversy said the clinic’s doctor only told them about the baby girl.

Her father told national broadcaster ABC they had had difficulties with the surrogacy agency and had been told it no longer existed.

The couple even claimed they were victims of mistaken identity. They admitted they had used a Thai surrogate mother to provide them with a child, and that they have a daughter who is of a similar age to Gammy, but they deny she has a twin brother. They said what they had been through in recent days had been “traumatising”.

But Ms Pattaramon’s version of events completely contradicts that of the parents. She said she agreed to be a surrogate for a West Australian couple, with payment agreed at £5,550.

Her doctors, the surrogacy agency and the baby’s parents knew one of the twins was disabled four months into her pregnancy but did not tell her, she said.

She claims it was not until the seventh month that the doctors and the agency told her one of the babies had Down’s syndrome. She says they suggested, at the parents’ request, that she terminate the boy.

Ms Pattaramon, a food vendor, refused to have a an abortion because it contradicts her beliefs.

She claims when the children were born last December the couple abandoned Gammy, telling her they could not take him home because they were too old to look after twins.

She said the father, who is in his fifties, “came to the hospital to take care of the girl” but “never looked Gammy in the face or carried him”.

She added: “He did not buy milk for Gammy. He only bought milk for the girl. The twins stayed next to each other but the father never looked at Gammy — not one bottle of milk did he give Gammy. I could say he never touched Gammy at all.”

Ms Pattaramon, who claims she has not received the full payment she was promised, plans to take care of Gammy as her own, saying: “I won’t give my baby to anybody.”

Of Gammy’s biological parents, she said: “I’ve never felt angry at them or hated them. I’m always willing to forgive them.

“I want to see that they love the baby girl as much as my family loves Gammy. I want her to be well taken care of.”

She plans to file a police complaint against the surrogacy agency, which she claims still owes her thousands of dollars she was promised for giving birth to the twins.

After Gammy’s plight was revealed in the media, an online campaign was launched to pay for his treatment.

It has so far raised more than £120,000.

Ms Pattaramon lives about 90 kilometres south of Bangkok with her two other children — a six-year-old and a three-year-old.

In Australia it is illegal to pay a surrogate living overseas.

Gammy is being treated for a lung infection in a hospital east of Bangkok and his condition is stable, a spokesman at the hospital said.

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