Legislation regulating artificial insemination and surrogate motherhood will have to wait until at least September after last-ditch attempts to pass the law yesterday met with resistance at the Legislative Yuan.
Taking advantage of a final opportunity to review bills before the Legislative Yuan goes into recess on Saturday, Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Tony Jian (簡肇棟), as convener of the Health, Environment and Social Welfare committee, tacked contesting drafts of the Artificial Insemination Law (人工生殖法草案) on to the committee agenda on Tuesday night.
The drafts were to have been discussed from 11am to 2pm yesterday, though committee sessions are rarely conducted around noon.
The last-minute addition caused a row among DPP lawmakers, with Legislator Shen Fu-hsiung (沈富雄) accusing Jian of sneaking the draft law onto the agenda despite the Department of Health lacking its own version of the bill.
Currently, two versions of the bill have been put on the table, one authored by DPP Legislator Lai Ching-te (賴清德) and the other by independent Legislator Chiu Chuang-liang (邱創良). The department has yet to present its own draft.
"The health department has failed to put up its draft bill because it's facing great difficulties. Under these circumstances, it is improper to force the bill through the legislature. Arranging for a review of the bill at noon does not accord with the requirements of the legislative process," Shen said.
Stalled for around a decade, the bill has yet to clear the legislature, until which time no legal framework covers the regulation of artificial insemination and surrogacy. Artificial insemination is currently policed under departmental regulations which also prohibit surrogate motherhood.
Lin Shio-jean (林秀娟), director-general of the department's Bureau of Health Promotion, described the difficulties facing the department in drafting the bill.
"Firstly, we don't know if we can agree to legalizing surrogate motherhood. The draft laws we have right now are not very specific and would be unable to handle the issues adequately," Lin said.
Lin said that because surrogate motherhood is covered by the Artificial Insemination Law, the legalization of procedures not deemed to be as controversial has been blocked.
Lin said the department in September would propose that legal articles pertaining to surrogate motherhood be lifted from the current law and dealt with separately and at a later date.
"This is a very complex issue and requires a degree of thought to be put into medical, legal, human rights and ethical considerations. For example, if it is legalized, should it be covered by National Health Insurance?" department Director-General Chen Chien-jen (陳建仁) asked.
Lin said the department would most likely wait until a conference held at the National Taiwan University in September reaches some conclusions on the matter before venturing its own draft.
Lin said the law needs to guarantee the rights of both the surrogate mother and the child. She criticized the drafts issued by Lai and Chiu, saying that they did not mention the rights of the child or custody matters. In previous years, the possibility of the commercialization of surrogacy has also been a point of concern.
Lin added that marital status offered another complication. Lai's version of the law would allow unmarried couples access to artificial insemination services.
The international community is also divided on the issue -- of those jurisdictions with legislation covering surrogate motherhood, 13 prohibit it and 9 permit it. Countries with prohibitions are Austria, the Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Germany, Mexico, Norway, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland. Surrogacy is legal in Brazil, Hong Kong, Hungary, Israel, Mexico, Holland, South Africa, Turkey, the UK and some states in the US.
US climber Alex Honnold is to attempt to scale Taipei 101 without a rope and harness in a live Netflix special on Jan. 24, the streaming platform announced on Wednesday. Accounting for the time difference, the two-hour broadcast of Honnold’s climb, called Skyscraper Live, is to air on Jan. 23 in the US, Netflix said in a statement. Honnold, 40, was the first person ever to free solo climb the 900m El Capitan rock formation in Yosemite National Park — a feat that was recorded and later made into the 2018 documentary film Free Solo. Netflix previewed Skyscraper Live in October, after videos
NUMBERS IMBALANCE: More than 4 million Taiwanese have visited China this year, while only about half a million Chinese have visited here Beijing has yet to respond to Taiwan’s requests for negotiation over matters related to the recovery of cross-strait tourism, the Tourism Administration said yesterday. Taiwan’s tourism authority issued the statement after Chinese-language daily the China Times reported yesterday that the government’s policy of banning group tours to China does not stop Taiwanese from visiting the country. As of October, more than 4.2 million had traveled to China this year, exceeding last year. Beijing estimated the number of Taiwanese tourists in China could reach 4.5 million this year. By contrast, only 500,000 Chinese tourists are expected in Taiwan, the report said. The report
Temperatures are forecast to drop steadily as a continental cold air mass moves across Taiwan, with some areas also likely to see heavy rainfall, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. From today through early tomorrow, a cold air mass would keep temperatures low across central and northern Taiwan, and the eastern half of Taiwan proper, with isolated brief showers forecast along Keelung’s north coast, Taipei and New Taipei City’s mountainous areas and eastern Taiwan, it said. Lows of 11°C to 15°C are forecast in central and northern Taiwan, Yilan County, and the outlying Kinmen and Lienchiang (Matsu) counties, and 14°C to 17°C
STEERING FAILURE: The first boat of its class is experiencing teething issues as it readies for acceptance by the navy, according to a recent story about rudder failure The Hai Kun (海鯤), the nation’s first locally built submarine, allegedly suffered a total failure of stern hydraulic systems during the second round of sea acceptance trials on June 26, and sailors were forced to manually operate the X-rudder to turn the submarine and return to port, news Web site Mirror Daily reported yesterday. The report said that tugboats following the Hai Kun assisted the submarine in avoiding collisions with other ships due to the X-rudder malfunctioning. At the time of the report, the submarine had completed its trials and was scheduled to begin diving and surfacing tests in shallow areas. The X-rudder,
RSS