A same-sex American-Spanish couple yesterday won a high-profile custody battle against a surrogate mother in Thailand who gave birth to their child, but then decided she wanted to keep the baby when she found out they were gay.
Bangkok’s Juvenile and Family Court ruled that the legal guardian of the child, named Carmen, is the girl’s US biological father, Gordon Lake, Lake’s attorney Rachapol Sirikulchit said.
“The court has granted legal custody of Carmen Lake to Gordon Lake, my client, and [said] that my client is her only guardian,” Rachapol said.
Lake and his partner, Spaniard Manuel Santos, both 41, have been stuck in Thailand since launching their legal battle after Carmen was born in January last year.
Santos emerged from the court smiling and with tears in his eyes.
“We won,” he told reporters. “We are really happy… This nightmare is going to end soon.”
“After 15 months, Carmen will fly to Spain,” where the couple lives, Santos said.
The case was seen as complicated by the fact that Thai law does not recognize same-sex marriages and also by a new law that bans commercial surrogacy, which took effect after Carmen’s birth.
When Carmen was born, Thai surrogate Patidta Kusolsang handed over the baby to Lake and Santos, who left the hospital with the infant.
They said Patidta then changed her mind and refused to sign the documents to allow Carmen to get a passport.
Lake is Carmen’s biological father, while the egg came from an anonymous donor.
Lake and Santos were told she had thought they were an “ordinary family and that she worried for Carmen’s upbringing,” according to a message Lake posted on a crowdfunding site that has raised US$36,000 to help cover the costs of the trial and staying in Thailand.
Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) is to visit Russia next month for a summit of the BRICS bloc of developing economies, Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi (王毅) said on Thursday, a move that comes as Moscow and Beijing seek to counter the West’s global influence. Xi’s visit to Russia would be his second since the Kremlin sent troops into Ukraine in February 2022. China claims to take a neutral position in the conflict, but it has backed the Kremlin’s contentions that Russia’s action was provoked by the West, and it continues to supply key components needed by Moscow for
Japan scrambled fighter jets after Russian aircraft flew around the archipelago for the first time in five years, Tokyo said yesterday. From Thursday morning to afternoon, the Russian Tu-142 aircraft flew from the sea between Japan and South Korea toward the southern Okinawa region, the Japanese Ministry of Defense said in a statement. They then traveled north over the Pacific Ocean and finished their journey off the northern island of Hokkaido, it added. The planes did not enter Japanese airspace, but flew over an area subject to a territorial dispute between Japan and Russia, a ministry official said. “In response, we mobilized Air Self-Defense
CRITICISM: ‘One has to choose the lesser of two evils,’ Pope Francis said, as he criticized Trump’s anti-immigrant policies and Harris’ pro-choice position Pope Francis on Friday accused both former US president Donald Trump and US Vice President Kamala Harris of being “against life” as he returned to Rome from a 12-day tour of the Asia-Pacific region. The 87-year-old pontiff’s comments on the US presidential hopefuls came as he defied health concerns to connect with believers from the jungle of Papua New Guinea to the skyscrapers of Singapore. It was Francis’ longest trip in duration and distance since becoming head of the world’s nearly 1.4 billion Roman Catholics more than 11 years ago. Despite the marathon visit, he held a long and spirited
China would train thousands of foreign law enforcement officers to see the world order “develop in a more fair, reasonable and efficient direction,” its minister for public security has said. “We will [also] send police consultants to countries in need to conduct training to help them quickly and effectively improve their law enforcement capabilities,” Chinese Minister of Public Security Wang Xiaohong (王小洪) told an annual global security forum. Wang made the announcement in the eastern city of Lianyungang on Monday in front of law enforcement representatives from 122 countries, regions and international organizations such as Interpol. The forum is part of ongoing