"I hope the country adopts this kind of law as I would then have legal rights as the biological father of my children," said Wijarn, whose biological triples were delivered from another woman, not his wife.

Due to his wife's health problems, the couple had asked a woman to be the surrogate mother of their babies.

The children were then recognised by law as children of the surrogate family.

Wijarn attended the public debate on the Surrogate Bill, an attempt by the Council of State to regulate surrogate motherhood.

This was the second time the bill had been brought up for public comment by the committee drawing the bill. The first time was earlier this year when the bill was strongly criticised by experts.

Nandana Indanond, a judge who was funded by the Council of State to conduct a research of similar law in other countries and draw up the draft, said the draft put up for comment yesterday was a revised version from comments collected from the previous debate.

Under the new version of the bill, a woman can legally carry a baby for another couple, but the surrogacy agreement must be approved by the court.

The draft allows surrogate mothers to receive money, but only for medical expenses and other expenses related to medical treatment, such as transportation.

The surrogacy agreement would not have legal standing in court. A couple who asked another woman to carry a baby must be the owners of the egg and sperm and would be legal parents of the child, while the woman who carried the baby has an obligation to relinquish the baby to the couple.

The best interests of the child would be the foundation of the court to consider any cases of conflict between the surrogate mother and the owners of the egg and sperm.

Experts on reproductive technology and the law discussed the small points such as the minimum age of surrogate mother - to be 20, not 18 - and that legal surrogacy should be provided for all.

Meanwhile, homosexual advocates strongly criticised the bill as it deprived them of their rights to have their "own" baby.

Nandana said he would not revise the draft as demanded by homosexual advocates.

"We have to stick to the reason why we drafted the bill - to prevent commercial surrogacy and to protect the rights of the child born from surrogacy. I respect their [homosexuals] rights, but it is better to be stated in other laws, not this one," he said.

Pennapa Hongthong

The Nation