An American woman causes a flutter by abandoning her two-month-old son, born via an Indian surrogate mother, at the Passport Office in Secunderabad here on Wednesday, protesting delay in issuing passport to him.
J. Perllinda Vanburen Green, 40, however, took back her son after the police promised her to secure the travel documents at the earliest. The drama unfolded around 5 p.m. when the woman went up to the passport office. Later, she left the baby wrapped in clothes in the verandah and disappeared.
After noticing the infant, the passport office authorities called in the Market Police. The police, after examining some documents left in a bag along with the baby, traced her to the nearby Rama Fertility Centre. The American married a Jamaican 15 years ago but could not conceive. She lives with her husband in Jamaica.
Ms. Green contacted the fertility centre and got her husband's sperm flown in to Hyderabad. She entered into a contract with an Indian woman seeking the latter to donate oocyte. “Thus, the boy was born to the Jamaican via an Indian surrogate mother on December 7, 2011,” Market Police Inspector S. Vinod Kumar told The Hindu .
Ms. Green landed here three weeks ago to take her son to Jamaica and applied for passport for his son under the Tatkal scheme on January 19. She was reportedly assured that the passport would be issued four days later.
“It seems she was depressed at not getting the passport on the said day but the legal provisions obstructed the process,” the Inspector said. The passport authorities reportedly maintained that they wrote to the Ministry of External Affairs for clarification if they could issue a passport to the baby born to a Jamaican via a surrogate Indian mother, whose details were kept secret.
The American could not secure a Jamaican passport for the baby as there is no Jamaican embassy either in Hyderabad or in Delhi. The woman approached the honorary consul of the Jamaican government in Delhi but was asked to meet the Passport Officer in Hyderabad.
Finally, the authorities here decided to issue an identity certificate to the newborn following a verification report, to be submitted by the Special Branch wing of the Hyderabad police. She can fly abroad along with her son with the identity certificate and obtain a Jamaican passport for him, the police said.
