- Cambodia banned commercial surrogacy in 2016, and police in June raided two flats where Sophea and 31 other surrogate mothers were being cared for in Phnom Penh
- They were charged the following month with violating human-trafficking laws, but authorities released them on bail last week, under the condition they raise the children themselves
Sophea was eight months pregnant when Cambodian police told her she would have to keep the baby that was never meant to be hers – and forfeit the US$10,000 she was promised for acting as a surrogate for a Chinese couple.
Cambodia banned commercial surrogacy in 2016, and police in June raided two flats where Sophea and 31 other surrogate mothers were being cared for in Cambodia’s capital, Phnom Penh.
They were charged the following month with violating human-trafficking laws, but authorities released them on bail last week, under the condition they raise the children themselves.
Campaigners say Cambodia’s surrogacy crackdown is unlikely to end the trade as poverty means many women will continue to risk arrest for the chance to earn life-changing sums of money.
For some of the newly freed women, keeping their baby is a burden as they struggle to get by. For others, it is a relief.
Despite the financial loss, 24-year-old Sophea said she was happy the authorities intervened, and that her family had welcomed her baby boy.
South China Morning Post, December 11, 2018
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The post Cambodia’s surrogate mothers go free after agreeing to raise Chinese children but some see it as a mixed blessing appeared first on Time For Families.
Source: Time for Families
