Couple denies abandoning surrogate-born baby

In this image taken from video supplied Sunday, Aug. 10, 2014 by Channel 9's "60 Minutes", David Farnell, right, his wife Wendy, left, pose with baby Pipah in Australia. The Australian couple, David and his wife Wendy Farnell, has denied that they abandoned their son born with Down syndrome to a Thai surrogate. The couple said in the interview that the boy's surrogate mother, Pattaramon Chanbua, insisted she be allowed to keep the boy and that she threatened to also keep his twin sister Pipah. (AP Photo/Channel 9 60 Minutes) AUSTRALIA OUT, NO SALES, EDITORIAL USE ONLY

By Associated Press August 10, 2014 5 min read

SYDNEY (AP) – An Australian couple denied they had abandoned their son with his Thai surrogate after learning he had Down syndrome, saying in an interview broadcast on Sunday that the woman demanded she be allowed to keep the boy.

Baby Gammy’s surrogate mother, Pattaramon Chanbua, a 21-year-old food vendor with two young children of her own, had accused the boy’s biological parents, Wendy and David Farnell, of leaving her with the infant while taking his healthy twin sister, Pipah, back with them to Australia.

“We did not abandon our son,” an emotional David Farnell said in an interview with Australia’s “60 Minutes.”

“(Pattaramon) said that if we tried to take our little boy, she’s going to get the police and she’s going to try and take our little girl and she’s going to keep both of the babies,” he said.

Pattaramon denied that she’d ever threatened to keep both children, but agreed that she hadn’t wanted the Farnells to take Gammy home.