SINGAPORE, Feb 21 — A 45-year-old Singaporean man pleaded guilty in court yesterday to providing fake birth certificates for his twin baby boys, who were born through a surrogate mother in India.
He had given the birth certificates, which falsely stated that he and his Singaporean wife are their parents, to consular officers in India and Singapore in order to bring them here.
However, a DNA test later revealed that they are not his biological children.
The couple and the boys cannot be named to protect the children’s identities.
Aside from the three charges the man pleaded guilty to, six other charges under the Passports Act, the Constitution of Singapore and the Penal Code will be taken into consideration for sentencing on March 18.
This case comes after a landmark decision three months ago, when the High Court allowed a gay Singaporean doctor to adopt his five-year-old biological son born through a surrogate mother in the United States. Following that, the High Court noted that Singapore should study its laws on surrogacy.
As surrogacy is illegal here, some couples have been turning to overseas clinics to engage such services. Some then returned to Singapore with the child and put their names on the birth certificate.
In January, the Ministry of Social and Family Development said it would study the issue of surrogacy and review adoption laws and practices here.
What happened
Yesterday, the court heard that sometime in September 2013, the man took his wife to Mumbai for in-vitro fertilisation (IVF) as they were unable to conceive.
They were accompanied by another couple, Sam Yap — who is the man’s friend — and Wenda Ng, who also could not have a child naturally.
The four of them met a doctor and arranged to do the following:
The eggs of the man’s wife and a donor’s eggs would be fertilised with the man’s sperm. The eggs would then be deposited into his wife’s womb.
Separately, his wife’s and the donor’s eggs would be fertilised by both the man’s and Yap’s sperm. They would then be deposited into a surrogate’s womb.
The man was also told that only Indian nationals could take custody of any children should the surrogate mother conceive.
Because of that, he arranged for his former domestic helper and her husband, who were Indian nationals, to take custody of any child conceived by the surrogate. He also made arrangements to adopt the child from them.
After the IVF procedures, the man and his wife returned to Singapore. While she did not manage to conceive, they were later informed that the surrogate mother had successfully conceived and was bearing twins.
On July 13, 2014, the man was told that the twins would have to be prematurely delivered. He flew to Mumbai alone as his presence was required during the birth.
The surrogate mother then gave birth on July 16.
It was only more than a year later, in September 2015, that a DNA report revealed that the man could not be the boys’ biological father. This meant that Yap is the father. It is unclear if their biological mother is the man’s wife.
About a week after the boys’ births, the man returned to Mumbai when he was told they could be discharged. He then hired another man known as “Guru” to help with the boys’ paperwork.
When Guru took the man to the Municipal Corporation in Mumbai to apply for birth certificates, he told the man that he had missed the seven-day deadline to register the boys’ birth with the authorities.
The man gave him 100,000 rupees (RM5,722) to get the birth certificates.
Guru then told him that he would list the man and his wife as the boys’ birth parents as the man’s domestic helper was not ready to take custody of them.
While the man waited for the birth certificates to be ready in two weeks’ time, one of the boys developed a hernia at his groin, which was life-threatening and required immediate surgery.
Not confident with the medical facilities in India, the man wanted to take the boy to Singapore for treatment but this required travel documents.
At this point, Guru asked the man when his wife was last in India. That was on March 9, 2014, when she had a hip replacement operation.
This was because his wife was listed as the boys’ birth mother and the authorities would not question them if the date of birth on their certificates corresponded with the date that she was last in India.
The man told Guru to put the date of birth for both boys as March 9, 2014, before paying him to get the birth certificates.
About a week later, Guru passed him two sets of documents. One stated the correct date of birth as July 16, 2014, while the second falsely stated it as March 9, 2014. Both sets listed the man and his wife as their parents.
Fake birth certifiicates
On Sept 3, 2014, the man contacted the Immigration and Checkpoints Authority (ICA). He told them he required a valid travel document to take the sick boy to Singapore for urgent surgery.
The ICA told him to apply for Singapore citizenship for the boys to facilitate the application of the travel document.
The man submitted the citizen application forms for both boys to ICA via email the next day. In the form for the sick boy, he declared that he was the father.
The next day, the couple went to the Singapore Consulate-General in India. The man gave the sick boy’s fake birth certificate to the consular officer, who granted the boy a document of identity in lieu of a passport. The boy was also registered as a Singapore citizen that day.
The boy entered Singapore two days later using the document of identity.
On Oct 10 that year, the man’s wife lodged a police report stating that her husband had gotten fake documentation for the boys and submitted it to the Singapore authorities in India to get clearance to take them back here.
Court documents did not state why she did so.
In court yesterday, Deputy Public Prosecutor Selene Yap sought six months’ jail for the man. His offences “strike at the core of our immigration laws and a clear signal should be sent to all would-be offenders”, she added.
The man’s lawyer, R Thrumurgan, asked for an adjournment to get medical and psychiatric reports which would be relevant for sentencing, as his client suffers from “a variety of ailments”. — TODAY
