In October 2017, the Supreme Court refused to hear a surrogacy case where the mother was pressured to abort a triplet but refused. When Chester Moore, Jr., who resides in Georgia, found out that his hired surrogate, Melissa Cook, was carrying 3 babies, he decided he couldn't afford to raise 3 and told her to abort 1. Cook, who had anonymous donor eggs fertilized by Moore's sperm, gave birth in California to all 3 in February 2016.

The dispute ballooned with Cook's concerns about Moore's fitness as a father. Moore, 51, is deaf and mute, living with invalid parents in a cigarette smoke-filled house. Well after the children were born, Moore's siater testified her brother was incapable of properly caring for them and that the 3 newborns were living in a decrepit basement. The sister concluded, "I was horrified by the prospect that our brother, who has not been able to take care of himself, would attempt to take on raising triplets on his own while he lived in the chaos at my parents' home."

Kaiser Hospital members visited the home and advised Cobb County Division of Family and Child Services to "take the children...because (Moore) can't care for them." The children were permitted to remain in the home.

Surrogate mother Cook challenged California's liberal surrogacy laws in court, saying they violate her and the babies rights to due process and equal protection under the Constitution. Kathleen Sloan, as co-filer of a friend of the court brief supporting Cook argued, "Surrogacy is creating a generation of children severed from biological and genetic identity and a breeder class of marginalized women. Both are being transformed into commodities for sale."

Cook lost in both federal and state courts and appealed to the Supreme Court who refused to hear the case. The Suprepme Court filing claimed that the children, then 18 months, were forced to eat off the basement floor and allowed to stay in filthy, soiled diapers. https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/supreme-court-refuses-to-hear-case-of-surrogate-mom-who-refused-abortion http://www.ocregister.com/2017/09/20/surrogate-mom-fears-for-triplets-after-allegations-of-abuse-by-father/

Traveling from the US to Asia, in 2014, a young Thai woman saw an online ad seeking surrogate mothers and offering $10,000 to help a foreign couple who wanted a child but couldn't conceive. In reality, there was no couple. Instead, a young man from Japan, Mitsutoki Shigeta, now labeled as the "Baby Factory" Dad, whom she met twice but who never spoke a word to her. This man, the son of a Japanese billionaire, would go on to make surrogate babies with 10 other women in Thailand, spending more than a half milllion $ to father at least 16 children for unclear reasons.

Who is Mitsutoki Shigeta and why did he want so many babies? He was investigated for human trafficking and child exploitation, but Thai police said they did not find evidence of wither. Shigeta, at the time 24-years old, said he simply wanted a big family. He was not charged with any crime; his whereabouts are unknown; he left Bangkok after police raided his condo on 08/09/14 where they discovered 9 babies along with 9 nannies.

Mitsutoki Shigeta (hereinafter "MS") is the son of Japanese billionaire tycoon, Yasumitsu Shigeta, founder of mobile phone distributor Hikari Tsushin. Even his father's heritage is shrouded in mystery. Multiple stock filings show that Yasumitsu has a son named Mitsutoki and his company has a shareholder with the same name. The stock papers show that Mitsutoki was born on 02/09/90. As a major shareholder of his father's business, MS earns millions per year in dividends, but in Japan, he keeps an extremely low profile. His father's company started as a business phone and office equipment sales firm and is now listed on the 1st section of the Tokyo Stock Exchange and has more than 180 subsidiaries.

MS took steps to get his babies - from hiring surrogacy clinics and nannies, to registering apartments in the infants' names, and completing legal paperwork required for birth certificates and passpoerts. The deliveries were spread out at 9 Bangkok hospitals. MS said he "wanted to win elections and could use his big family for voting, wanting 10-15 babies per year," and that he would continue the baby-making process until he's dead. MS further said he was seeking to purchase equipment to freeze and preserve his "high-quality" sperm at home to allow him to keep producing children even in old age. He said he wants to produce 100 to 1,000 children.

Because of MS's case, Thailand has sinced banned commercial surrogacy for foreign clients. That law sent foreigners seeking surrogate mothers to Cambodia, including MS, who also banned it later.

Japan has no law banning surrogacy, but the medical industry issued orders against it that are strictly followed which would explain why MS flew to one of the few places in Asia where it is openly protected - Thailand. http://m.startribune.com/surrogate-offers-clues-into-man-with-16-babies/273526681/

On 02/21/18, MS was awared custody of 13 babies he had fathered by surrogacy in a decision from Thailand's Bangkok Central Juvenile Court. "I've never seen a case like this," the Thailand director of Interpol said. MS did not appear in court. A total of 17 babies were found to be fathered by him, including 4 sets of twins. He also has 2 children via surrogates in India. MS plans to send the children to an international school and is preparing a house for them in Tokyo where they will be looked after by nurses and nannies. Little is known about him, described by Associated Press as litigious in protecting his identity.
https://www.bangkokpost.com/news/general/1416395/japanese-dad-of-13-wanted-100-1000-children

A fertility center founder made repeated warnings to Interpol and media outlets in 2013 over the never-ending demand for more surrogate mothers from MS, but rhey went unheeded. Marian Kukunashvili (hereinafter, Ms. K), co-founder of New Life Global Network, admitted to providing 2 surrogate mothers at the same time to MS in 2013 but siad suspicions about the then 22 year old's motives arose soon after. "We served MS 1 time only, and then he demanded he wanted more and more babies," she said. "I immediately found it suspicious, especially for a man of his age, and we refused to further serve hims and warned Interpol stating, "something is very wrong here" (who denied they ever received a message even though documents obtained confirm that she had), the BBC, CNN, and the Japanese embassy."

Ms. K said she had learned while the women were pregnant that MS had commissioned another 3 surrogate mothers from a separate agency. Birth certificates have been found indicating MS had fathered 15 babies to surrogate mothers in Thailand, 9 of which were discovered during a raid, as previously mentioned. She also said New Life Thailand had acted only as an intermediary in the surrogacy arrangement with MS, while the actual in vitro fertilization (IVF) procedures were performed by Pisit Tantiwathanakul, director of the All IVF Center in Bangkok. "I phoned Dr. Pisit and informed him that MS's request was suspicious, but he did not listem and continued serving MS himself," she said. Dr. Pisit was unavailable for comment and efforts by the Bangkok Post to contact him went unanswered. Ms. K suggested her staff had painted MS as a man showing possible signs of mental imbalance. Her staff had been shown 3 separate pasports belonging to MS - Japanese, Chinese, and Cambodia.

MS fled Thailand on a flight to Macau in 2014. He is thought to be a resident of Hong Kong where he owns a luxury apartment and has minor business interests. He was accompanied by a Japanese woman, Yuka Unno, also sought by police. The only thing I found on her, if this was the correct Yuka Unno, is that she is an Assistant Professor at Teikyo University in Tokyo, Department of Microbiology and Immunology as well as academic research publications that are very scientific in nature. It is suspicious and may also have been involved in MS's operation.

MS had visited Thailand 65 times since 2012. Nannies were hired for 10,000 bakt a month to take care of surrogate babies. According to Yanee Lertkrai, director-general of the Department of Social Development and Welfare, the babies all look different, and it is hard to believe they share the same blood.
https://www.bangkokpost.com/learning/learning-news/425502/surrogate-update-thurs-warnings-issued-a-year-ago

Without a doubt, surrogate Motherhood is often just another form of human trafficking. In India, there is virtually no control over the surrogacy industry, and indeed, it is an industry. In te US it is also basically unregulated. Only Indiana, Michigan, New Jersey, and New York prohibit renting wombs for profit in the incubation of other people's children. It is estimated that nearly half the child "purchases" in the US are by foreigners. Surrogate mothers can make as much as $30,000 a baby or more. It has grown globally into a $6 billion industry where India and the US are its leaders.

Kathleen Sloan mentioned previously, who appeared on behalf of surrogate mother Melissa Cook, summed-it up succinctly:

"Surrogacy is out of control in the US. When the primal bond - as ancients as humankind itself - between mother and child is destroyed, what will be left?"