The Australian parents who paid a Thai woman to carry their twins but allegedly abandoned one of the babies have spoken out against the backlash, claiming they only knew about one of babies.
Baby Gammy, who has Down syndrome, and his twin sister were born six months ago to Pattaramon Chanbua. A surrogacy agency paid Chanbua $16,000 to carry the babies for an unidentified Australian couple, but when the parents found out one of the twins had Down syndrome, they kept the healthy twin girl and left Gammy in Thailand with Chanbua, the surrogate mother told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
But the Australian couple told ABC they had no knowledge of any son. The baby girl's father said the doctors involved only told them about the girl. He also said the surrogacy process was agonizing.
"We saw a few people at the hospital. We [didn't] know who the surrogate was- it was very confusing. There was a language barrier," the unmarried couple told ABC.
The father also said he was informed the surrogacy agency went out of business.
Chanbua maintains the parents, the doctors and the agency knew about Gammy and his diagnosis four months into her pregnancy last year. When she was seven months pregnant, the parents requested she abort the baby boy, she told ABC.
Chanbua, who has two children of her own, said she refused to carry out the abortion because her religious beliefs consider abortion a sin.
"It is easy for you to make such a decision but for me it was difficult. I could not do it," said Chanbua, who wants to raise Gammy as her own.
In addition to Down syndrome, Gammy suffers from a congenital condition that has left him with a hole in his heart. The six-month-old also has a lung infection.
Sympathizers around the world donated to the online campaign Hope for Gammy, which was launched to help the impoverished Thai mother take care of Gammy. As of Monday the campaign has raised over $222,000.
A spokeswoman for a hospital east of Bangkok told ABC Gammy is receiving medical treatment for the lung infection and is in stable condition.
