Australian nurse arrested under new surrogacy laws.
Posted: Mon Nov 21, 2016 12:08 pm
According to this article, the arrests were made following a 10 month investigation into the Australian surrogacy agency. However, surrogacy in Cambodia was not declared an illegal practice until October 25 2016, and the present case is being pursued under anti-trafficking law Article 332. The Cambodian authorities have clearly decided to put an immediate halt to surrogacy practices in the kingdom.
It is reported that 23 Cambodian women have been employed as surrogate mothers by Fertility Solutions PGD and that 5 of them have already given birth. As surrogacy has now become illegal, the legal status of the surrogate babies and what will happen to them is unclear.
According to the Ministry of Health, there were about 50 surrogacy providers operating in Cambodia when the prakas were issued last month.
Anti-trafficking police arrest surrogacy trio
Mon, 21 November 2016
Cristina Maza, Kong Meta and Sen David
Anti-human trafficking police in Phnom Penh arrested three people on Friday for their involvement in Cambodia’s opaque commercial surrogacy industry, marking the first-ever arrests in a sector still largely free of concrete legal parameters.
Australian national Tammy Davis-Charles, founder of the surrogacy agency Fertility Solutions PGD, was arrested along with two Cambodian nationals who worked with her – Penh Rithy, an employee at the Ministry of Commerce, and Sambath Chakriya, a nurse at Sihanouk Hospital – said Keo Thea, director of the anti-trafficking office.
The arrest was the result of a 10-month investigation into a surrogacy operation that allegedly recruited 23 surrogate mothers in Phnom Penh and Kandal provinces, he added. Eighteen women are currently pregnant and five babies have left Cambodia with their intended parents.
The trio is being charged under Article 332 of the Penal Code, which prohibits acting as an intermediary between adoptive parents and a pregnant woman. They are also charged with possession of fraudulent documents and could face up to two years in prison if found guilty, Thea said.
Commercial surrogacy came to Cambodia about a year ago after it was banned in countries like Thailand, India and Nepal. Agencies like Fertility Solutions PGD, which operated in Thailand for years, moved to Cambodia, where the legal framework was uncertain.
Article 332 was originally drafted to combat trafficking and does not directly apply to surrogacy. But over the past several months, the government routinely stated its intention to ban the industry.
On October 24, the Ministry of Health issued a prakas banning surrogacy outright. But legal experts said the directive lacked the force of law...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/a ... ogacy-trio
It is reported that 23 Cambodian women have been employed as surrogate mothers by Fertility Solutions PGD and that 5 of them have already given birth. As surrogacy has now become illegal, the legal status of the surrogate babies and what will happen to them is unclear.
According to the Ministry of Health, there were about 50 surrogacy providers operating in Cambodia when the prakas were issued last month.
Anti-trafficking police arrest surrogacy trio
Mon, 21 November 2016
Cristina Maza, Kong Meta and Sen David
Anti-human trafficking police in Phnom Penh arrested three people on Friday for their involvement in Cambodia’s opaque commercial surrogacy industry, marking the first-ever arrests in a sector still largely free of concrete legal parameters.
Australian national Tammy Davis-Charles, founder of the surrogacy agency Fertility Solutions PGD, was arrested along with two Cambodian nationals who worked with her – Penh Rithy, an employee at the Ministry of Commerce, and Sambath Chakriya, a nurse at Sihanouk Hospital – said Keo Thea, director of the anti-trafficking office.
The arrest was the result of a 10-month investigation into a surrogacy operation that allegedly recruited 23 surrogate mothers in Phnom Penh and Kandal provinces, he added. Eighteen women are currently pregnant and five babies have left Cambodia with their intended parents.
The trio is being charged under Article 332 of the Penal Code, which prohibits acting as an intermediary between adoptive parents and a pregnant woman. They are also charged with possession of fraudulent documents and could face up to two years in prison if found guilty, Thea said.
Commercial surrogacy came to Cambodia about a year ago after it was banned in countries like Thailand, India and Nepal. Agencies like Fertility Solutions PGD, which operated in Thailand for years, moved to Cambodia, where the legal framework was uncertain.
Article 332 was originally drafted to combat trafficking and does not directly apply to surrogacy. But over the past several months, the government routinely stated its intention to ban the industry.
On October 24, the Ministry of Health issued a prakas banning surrogacy outright. But legal experts said the directive lacked the force of law...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/a ... ogacy-trio