Mother wants her mid-air newborn baby to be a Thai citizen

She would love her newborn to be a Thai citizen, single mother Wassana Promkasikorn, who gave birth to her second child mid-air while traveling from Doha to home in Bangkok, said on Wednesday. Currently, undergoing treatment at a city-based hospital, 23-year-old Promkasikorn has also thought of a Thai name for her kid Thanakrit Promkasikorn.

The citizenship of the baby boy is debated after his birth mid-air around 10 km above sea level inside a Qatar Airways flight from Doha to Bangkok on Tuesday. "I will prefer my son to be a Thai citizen. I am a Thai national and that should be the identity of my son also," she said over the phone of a hospital official.

"There are two options. According to Article 5 of the Constitution, anybody born on the Indian soil can claim to be Indian citizenship. But in this case, the baby is also eligible to be a Thai citizen because of his mother's nationality. And here the mother has taken a decision," lawyer Anirban Guha Thakurta said when contacted. Both the baby and the mother are doing fine and they will be discharged from the hospital on Thursday, a senior doctor of the hospital said.

A team of officials from the Consulate of Thailand in the city visited Promkasikorn and the newborn during the day. "As per the health condition of the mother and the baby we have decided to discharge them tomorrow evening. After that she will take a late-night flight to Bangkok," a senior official of the hospital said.

The flight QR 830 had made an emergency landing at Kolkata airport on Tuesday after a woman delivered baby mid-air. This happened around 3 am when the aircraft was flying over Kolkata.

The female flight attendants had helped the woman in the delivery of the baby.