CityNews – Monks, psychiatrists and philosophers took part in a discussion titled “Carrying Merit or Carrying Sin?” on the issue of surrogacy last week.
Photo: Wikimedia Commons
The event was held at Mahachulalongkornrajavidyalaya University’s (MCU) Chiang Mai campus, and follows a recent case in the headlines involving an Australian couple, a Thai surrogate mother and a baby called Gammy who was born with Down Syndrome.
The University organised the forum so the key speakers could discuss questions of law, medical ethics and morals, Manager daily reported
Dr Pairat Pruksachatkunakorn, psychiatrist and associate judge at Chiang Mai’s Central Juvenile and Family Court, said that surrogacy in the past was simply about sperm donation without compensation, and was believed to be an act of charity.
Couples could only donate sperm to blood relatives of either party, except their own children. However, these days surrogacy has become a commercial matter, he said.
“Japanese businessmen now hire Thai women to be surrogate mothers. It’s all about commerce, not love, nor relationships between parents and children. It’s dangerous that the babies are often born in order to take care of their parent’s businesses around the world. They see human beings as a product,” said Dr Pairat.
Assistant Professor Parut Bunsitan of Chiang Mai University’s Department of Religions and Philosophy pointed out that “when surrogacy turns into commercial surrogacy and when people don’t see human beings as real people, they forget about morals and don’t understand natural truth, which causes great problems in society.”
The deputy president of the campus expressed his opinion that surrogacy is a sin, especially when a baby is born with imperfections and the genetic parents abandon it.
“If society sees human beings as a trade, that’s terrible. Some women had been pregnant for only seven months, have a miscarriage and use the foetus’ cells to make beauty products. That’s a terrible sin.” he said, according to the report.
The debate concluded that surrogacy was a sin.