Now the Cambodian authorities are wondering if surrogacy would be ok as long as the surrogate mothers do it for free.
Is altruistic surrogacy the answer ?

- The Ministry of Women’s Affairs is considering legalising altruistic surrogacy in Cambodia, but yesterday reaffirmed it would completely outlaw the commercial industry.

However, observers yesterday warned of a potential minefield surrounding altruistic surrogacy, in which a surrogate mother, in theory, is not paid beyond the cost of her necessary health care.

Ministry of Women’s Affairs spokesman Phon Puthborey said he expected feedback on the first draft of a new surrogacy law to be returned by the end of the month, with input from the ministries of social affairs, foreign affairs, justice and health.

“Commercial surrogacy is going to be banned completely, but we are now looking at the possibility of whether altruistic surrogacy should be legal,” he said. “We want the law to protect the best interests of the women who are vulnerable.” ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/m ... -surrogacy

Jailed Aussie nurse Tammy Davis-Charles reveals cancer diagnosis
28 December 2017
An Australian nurse who was convicted earlier this year in a surrogacy case in Cambodia has reportedly asked the Court of Appeal in Phnom Penh for a sentence reduction, saying she has cancer.

Tammy Davis-Charles was jailed for 18 months in August for falsifying documents and acting as an intermediary in a commercial surrogacy operation.

“I would like to request the court to reduce the punishment for me so that I can leave prison soon and get treatment,” she said during the Wednesday hearing.
During the hearing, Davis-Charles submitted a letter allegedly confirming a diagnosis of cancer in her left eye, the Phnom Penh post reported.

Davis-Charles worked on behalf of Families Through Surrogacy, an Australian-based organisation that linked surrogates with would-be parents.

She allegedly charged foreign parents $50,000 per surrogacy and paid surrogates $10,000.
https://thewest.com.au/news/australia/j ... b88701469z

4 January 2018
Presiding Judge Kem Dany said a decision on Davis-Charles’ appeal would be made on January 8. Davis-Charles and her two co-detainees have five months of their 18 month sentence left to serve.

http://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/parent ... 496cba0473

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/ ... nce-upheld

The 8th of January 2018 was the Cambodian government deadline for surrogacy amnesties, but what will happen now ?
Feature article from the Phnom Penh Post:

When ignorance leaves pregnant surrogates on the wrong side of Cambodian law
10 January 2018
Malis* sits under her home in a remote village with her legs folded under her swelling belly. She’s six months pregnant, expecting a baby girl, and knows nothing about the child’s parents except that they are Chinese.

She also is unaware that, as of yesterday, she could find herself facing serious jail time for her role in an illegal surrogacy operation.

Though the “rent-a-womb” practice was outlawed in a snap edict in October 2016, the Interior Ministry named January 8 the deadline for a “surrogacy amnesty”.

Surrogate mothers who gave birth before that day and handed the baby over to its intended parents would avoid prosecution. Intended parents, meanwhile, were encouraged to notify the Cambodian courts to gain custody of their child and be granted an exit visa through proper channels.

Parents, brokers and surrogate mothers connected to babies born after that date, however, would face legal action, the ministry warned, in guidelines officially disseminated to embassies in July last year...

http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/w ... bodian-law

Only half of surrogate paperwork approved
2 Feburary 2018
Just half of an estimated dozen applications by parents trying to prove their DNA link to their baby born via a Cambodian surrogate have so far been approved by the Phnom Penh Municipal court, officials said yesterday.

Earlier this month, Chou Bun Eng, permanent vice chair of the National Committee for Counter Trafficking, said 12 cases had been lodged by intended parents.

But yesterday, she said she had approved just one exit visa, for an American couple.

“I want to emphasise that embassies are not cooperative with us. I have never received any requests from the embassies . . . The one case is from an individual who sent it directly to us,” she said.

The government’s guidelines also say that intended parents, brokers or surrogates connected to a child born after January 8 will face legal consequences.
“Currently we have not arrested any surrogate women who were after the deadline, and we keep looking for new cases,” Bun Eng added.
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/o ... k-approved

Draft surrogacy law shared with UN rights rapporteur
7 March 2018
The Ministry of Justice has finished a draft law on surrogacy and it was yesterday supported by the United Nations Rapporteur to Cambodia on her second day of a 10-day mission to the Kingdom.

Rhona Smith, the UN’s Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in Cambodia, yesterday met with Justice Minister Ang Vong Vathana and discussed a range of issues, including the draft surrogacy law.

Surrogacy has been a controversial issue in the region and has been banned by India, Nepal and Thailand.

It is not specifically covered by Cambodia’s Criminal Code, but cases have been caught up in provisions of the Law on Human Trafficking.

In August 2017, Phnom Penh Municipal Court sentenced Australian nurse Tammy Davis-Charles and two Cambodian to 18 months in jail each for their roles in a surrogate baby business.
All were found guilty of being intermediaries between an adoptive parent and a pregnant woman, and of fraudulent requests for documents.

The government then began its work on drafting a surrogacy law and the Justice Ministry announced its progress yesterday after the meeting with Ms Smith.

Chin Malin, undersecretary of state at the Justice Ministry, told reporters after the meeting that Ms Smith expressed support for the draft law that has been created in order to avoid commercial human trafficking.

“We have finished the first draft of the surrogacy law,” Mr Malin said. “We told her the main principles of the draft law are to protect the rights of children and women.”
“She has volunteered to help us review the first draft and give feedback in order to make a good law and comply with international standards,” he added.
Mr Malin said the draft law would be shared with Ms Smith, and then also with the Ministry of Women’s Affairs for further discussions.
http://www.khmertimeskh.com/50112243/dr ... apporteur/

Ministry issues notice to watch out for surrogacy
2 April 2018
An anti-trafficking committee has reissued instructions to provincial authorities to monitor any pre-existing or new cases in the now-outlawed surrogacy industry, asking officials to be on the lookout for persons attempting to convince women to become surrogates.

The March 29 directive, signed by Interior Minister Sar Kheng, comes more than two months after a January 8 deadline for “surrogacy amnesty”, before which surrogate mothers were allowed to hand over the baby to the intended parents without facing the risk of prosecution.

The new notification reminds provincial officials that the instructions issued last June, which announced the deadline, were still in force and that authorities should continue to monitor suspected surrogacy clinics and potential agents.

“Continue to search, monitor, and investigate suspicious cases of intermediaries or anyone who colludes to lobby [women] for surrogacy, makes them give the baby away or the unlawful removal of baby [from the country],” the directive reads.
https://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/ ... -surrogacy

Cambodian surrogacy scandal flares again

There was also this one:
newsworthy/police-raid-house-surrogate- ... 20arrested

And more recently, this case which is on-going, with eleven pregnant women taken into custody for human-trafficking in Phnom Penh:
newsworthy/home-full-surrogate-mothers- ... 24564.html