Gammy: Australian parents wanted a refund and would have aborted him

In Channel Nine interview, couple claim Thai surrogate mother threatened to take their healthy baby

The Guardian, Amanda Meade in Sydney, Sunday 10 August 2014

David Farnell, right, and his wife Wendy, left, with baby Pipah. The couple deny
 abandoning their son Gammy, who was born with Down's syndrome. Photograph: AP

The Australian parents of baby Gammy wanted a refund from the Thai surrogacy agency when they were told one of their twins would be born with Down's syndrome.

"We were very confused and we said that this is your fault, you must now take some responsibility for this," Gammy's father, David Farnell, said in an interview aired on Channel Nine's 60 Minutes on Sunday night.

In their first media interview since it was revealed they had left their seriously ill and disabled son in Thailand and taken his healthy sister, Pipah, home alone, the Farnells also admitted they would have aborted Gammy because no "parent wants a son with a disability".

"It was late into the pregnancy that we learned the boy had Down's," Farnell said. "They sent us the reports but they didn't do the checks early enough. If it would have been safe for that embryo to be terminated, we probably would have terminated it, because he has a handicap and this is a sad thing. And it would be difficult – not impossible, but difficult."

Farnell and his less talkative wife, Wendy, tried to explain to interviewer Tara Brown why they had not brought Gammy back home to Western Australia. They denied abandoning him.

But there were many contradictions in the interview. David Farnell admitted the couple did not want a child with a disability but then also claimed they had wanted to take Gammy out of Thailand but were being threatened by the Thai surrogate, Pattaramon Chanbua.

"We didn't leave him behind," Farnell said. "We wanted to bring him with us but things were happening that we couldn't.

"The surrogate mother wanted to take our girl and we were getting scared that we were going to lose her. We had to try and get out as fast as we could."

Chanbua has contradicted the couple in earlier media reports, saying they ignored Gammy when they came to the hospital and were happy for her to keep him.

Farnell admitted he had not done enough research before starting the surrogacy process but said he had chosen Thailand because the people were kind and the hospitals looked "clean".

During the intense and at times bizarre interview, Farnell fought back tears and repeatedly said he had tried his best and had been very stressed.

"It's been very stressing," he said. "We miss our little boy. I come home from work some days and Wendy has dressed our little girl all in blue because she wants to remember the little boy."

Farnell then admitted he had not tried to make contact with Pattaramon or find out about his son's health and had not at any point contacted the Australian embassy to request assistance with taking Gammy home.

"We haven't asked directly," he said. "We've been trying to make sure first that Pipah is safe. No one can take her away from us. We've been trying to do that for six months. When we know she's 100% safe with us then we can go and get our boy back."

Farnell showed the most emotion when confronted with his history of child sexual offences, for which he was imprisoned.

"I have been convicted of child sex offences and I hang my head in shame," he said. "And I am deeply regretful for that. I am so, so sorry to those people. I was convicted and I went to jail."

Brown asked him if his daughter was safe in his care as he had a history of abusing children as young as five. Farnell said he no longer had an attraction to children.

"I don't have any thoughts about this at all. That is 100% the truth. I cannot do this again. I can't do this. I know that I do not have any urges at all of this nature. For 30 years I've known this. I don't have any urges."

Wendy said she trusted her husband. "He had three children before, they all love him and respect him so much. They said he's a wonderful father."

The Australian father of Gammy, born to a surrogate in Thailand, has denied

 abandoning the child while taking home his healthy twin sister. Photograph:

Rungroj Yongrit/EPA

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