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In this Aug. 26, 2014 photo, Police Col. Decha
Promsuwan, an investigator in a surrogacy scandal involving a Japanese businessman,
shows documents during an interview at Lumpini police station in
Bangkok,Thailand. (AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit)
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Wassana, a young Thai woman, answered an online ad offering
$10,000 for surrogate mothers and is now embroiled in the case of a mysterious
Japanese man, Mitsutoki Shigeta, who police say fathered at least 16 children
through surrogates. The case has captivated Thailand and is at the center of a
growing scandal over commercial surrogacy, an industry that thrived on
semi-secrecy and legal loopholes that the country's military government now
vows to ban.
Police
say Japanese businessman Mitsutoki Shigeta followed nine key steps on his path
to fathering 16 surrogate babies in Thailand, born starting in June 2013. It's
unclear whether he went through all of the steps for every baby; four are in
Cambodia and the rest remain in Thailand. Here's how he did it:
1.
Shigeta hired surrogacy scouts and a fertility doctor in Bangkok.
2.
The doctor's fertility clinic handled implantation of the embryos.
3.
The clinic handled prenatal care and deliveries of the babies spread out at
nine Bangkok hospitals. The babies, all born via cesarean section, include four
sets of twins.
4.
Newborns were taken to a Bangkok condominium owned by Shigeta, where nannies
cared for them.
5.
Birth certificates were issued from at least five district offices in Bangkok.
6.
The babies' names were registered at the address of Shigeta's Bangkok
condominium.
7.
Shigeta went to juvenile and family court to get custody from the surrogate
mothers, some of whom told police they were instructed to lie about having an
affair with Shigeta to facilitate the transfer of custody.
8.
District offices issued documents stating that he is the biological father and
has custody.
9.
Those documents were used to issue the babies' passports.
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