A surrogate baby boy with Down's Syndrome and life-threatening health complications has reportedly been abandoned to his Thai mother after the Australian couple he was being carried for took only his healthy twin sister.
Pattaramon Chanbua says she was paid $15,000 by an Australian couple to be the surrogate mother of their child.
She said she did it because she could use the money to clear debts and educate her own two children, aged six and three.
"Because of the poverty and debts and the money that was offered was a lot for me," she told ABC.
She found out four months into the pregnancy that one of the twins she was carrying had Down's Syndrome. When she gave birth, the couple took only the healthy girl back to Australia.
Pattaramon, 21, is now raising six-month old Gammy by herself.
She told ABC: "I felt sorry for the boy. It was like this is the adults' fault and who is he to have to endure something like this even thought it's not his fault?"
"Why does he have to be abandoned while the other baby has it easy?
"I feel sorry for him. I don't know what to do. I chose to have him, not to hurt him. I love him. He was in my tummy for nine months, it's like my child.
"I treat him like my other children, never think you are not my child and I don't care for you, never."
Gammy is critically ill with a congenital heart conditions and there were concerns he would not survive as the family could not afford the treatment he urgently needs.
However, Pattaramon's hopes have been buoyed by a fundraising campaign that has raised $150,000 for treatment for Gammy on the GoFundMe site.
