An Australian couple paid a woman living in Thailand to bear a child for them. In fact she gave birth to twins, one of whom had Down’s syndrome. That child is still with the mother who bore him while the Australian woman has the child’s sibling. This much is agreed: almost all the other facts of the case are disputed. Did the couple demand that the Down’s foetus be aborted? Did they refuse to accept this baby while welcoming the other? Why did the birth mother refuse to give him up? Did the couple use a woman living abroad in the hope of hiding from the authorities in Australia the fact that the man was a convicted paedophile? Complex motives; a complex human situation. The word “use” is significant here, and explains the worldwide interest that the story gen