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.
NATIONAL SECURITY: Authorities are working to confirm the identities of the military personnel involved and investigating possible illegal conduct and regulatory violations Authorities are probing possible national security implications after Kinmen police and immigration officers on Sunday found a Chinese woman allegedly posing as a tourist while engaging in prostitution involving more than 10 military personnel. The woman, surnamed Chen (陳), has since been deported, authorities said, adding that investigators are still working to confirm the identities of those implicated, as the records only listed code names and aliases. The case stemmed from a report received by the Kinmen District Prosecutors’ Office on Friday last week from the Jinhu Precinct of the Kinmen County Police Bureau. On Sunday, police, along with the National Immigration
GLOBALGIVING: ‘ Caving to external pressure is not acceptable for an organization that has cultivated justice reform and human rights for 30 years,’ one NGO said A slew of non-government organizations (NGOs) have withdrawn from the GlobalGiving fundraising platform after it announced it would use “Chinese Taipei” instead of “Taiwan” from next month. The Taiwan Good Rice Association wrote on Facebook on Friday that it was informed on April 28 via a teleconference call of the change, which was made because the platform wanted to operate in China. Taiwan Good Rice is to terminate all cooperative relationships with GlobalGiving in response to the platform’s “unilateral and non-negotiable” decision to remove references to Taiwan, the NGO said. “Taiwan is in the official name of Taiwan Good Rice Association and the
HEAVY WEATHER: Typhoon Jangmi is due to crash straight into the Ryukyus as airlines look to shift flights to larger aircraft or cancel flights to Okinawa entirely Taiwan’s international air carriers announced flight adjustments over the weekend as Typhoon Jangmi is forecast to hit the Ryukyu Islands today and tomorrow. The Central Weather Administration (CWA) upgraded Jangmi from a tropical storm to a typhoon at 8am yesterday, with the eye located 580km south of Naha city. It was moving north at 19kph. Today, China Airlines’ CI-120, CI-121, CI-122 and CI-123 flights between Taoyuan and Naha, Okinawa, have been canceled as well as CI-132 and CI-133 between Kaohsiung and Naha. EVA Air’s BR-112, BR-113, BR-186 and BR-185 flights between Taoyuan and Naha are also canceled. Low-cost carrier Tigerair Taiwan canceled IT-230,
REASONS FOR TRAVEL: An assistant professor said that proposed amendments to penalize drivers if they used drugs overseas would not deter people from traveling People who operate a motor vehicle under the influence of marijuana would have their driver’s license revoked, even if they used the substance while overseas, the Ministry of Transportation and Communications said yesterday, citing proposed amendments to the Road Traffic Management and Penalty Act (道路交通管理處罰條例). The amendments would also authorize the government to revoke the licenses of people determined to have used Category 1 or Category 2 narcotics, even if they were not operating a vehicle while under the influence of drugs, as well as ban them from taking the license test for three years, the ministry said. People aged 18 or
RSS