The Department of Health (DOH) is drafting a regulation that would allow grown-up test-tube babies to know if they are biologically related to the person they are about to marry.
Test-tube babies conceived from egg or sperm donors do not know the identity of one of their biological parents. If the draft to a provision deriving from the Assisted Human Reproduction Act (
Those records could then be submitted to the Bureau of Health Promotion (BHP), which would double-check the list against the name of the egg or sperm donor.
In order to protect the identity of egg and sperm donors, couples would receive no information beyond whether or not they were related.
Although in theory the provision would solve the potential problem of close relatives marrying because of the unknown maternity or paternity of some test-tube babies, it could be that many won't even know they have that option.
"There is no law compelling parents to inform their children that they used an egg or sperm donor," said Wu Shiow-ing (吳秀英), deputy director general of the BHP, yesterday. "Many decide not to tell their children."
The check for relatedness is voluntary.
"It is up to the individual couple whether they want to take the chance," she said.
There are three others provisions in the draft which deals with different aspects of the Assisted Human Reproduction Act. They relate to the compensation of egg and sperm donors, the establishment of sperm banks and the qualification criteria for fertility centers.
According to a DOH official, the draft will be forwarded to the Executive Yuan for final approval.
Should the Executive Yuan approve it, the provisions are predicted to go into effect at the end of next month, Wu said.
Kenting National Park service technician Yang Jien-fon (楊政峰) won a silver award in World Grand Prix Photography Awards Spring Season for his photograph of two male rat snakes intertwined in combat. Yang’s colleagues at Kenting National Park said he is a master of nature photography who has been held back by his job in civil service. The awards accept entries in all four seasons across six categories: architectural and urban photography, black-and-white and fine art photography, commercial and fashion photography, documentary and people photography, nature and experimental photography, and mobile photography. Awards are ranked according to scores and divided into platinum, gold and
More than half of the bamboo vipers captured in Tainan in the past few years were found in the city’s Sinhua District (新化), while other districts had smaller catches or none at all. Every year, Tainan captures about 6,000 snakes which have made their way into people’s homes. Of the six major venomous snakes in Taiwan, the cobra, the many-banded krait, the brown-spotted pit viper and the bamboo viper are the most frequently captured. The high concentration of bamboo vipers captured in Sinhua District is puzzling. Tainan Agriculture Bureau Forestry and Nature Conservation Division head Chu Chien-ming (朱健明) earlier this week said that the
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus yesterday said it opposes the introduction of migrant workers from India until a mechanism is in place to prevent workers from absconding. Minister of Labor Hung Sun-han (洪申翰) on Thursday told the Legislative Yuan that the first group of migrant workers from India could be introduced as early as this year, as part of a government program. The caucus’ opposition to the policy is based on the assessment that “the risk is too high,” KMT caucus secretary-general Lin Pei-hsiang (林沛祥) said. Taiwan has a serious and long-standing problem of migrant workers absconding from their contracts, indicating that
SPACE VETERAN: Kjell N. Lindgren, who helps lead NASA’s human spaceflight missions, has been on two expeditions on the ISS and has spent 311 days in space Taiwan-born US astronaut Kjell N. Lindgren is to visit Taiwan to promote technological partnerships through one of the programs organized by the US for its 250th national anniversary. Lindgren would be in Taiwan from Tuesday to Saturday next week as part of the US Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs’ US Speaker Program, organized to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) said in a statement yesterday. Lindgren plans to engage with key leaders across the nation “to advance cutting-edge technological partnerships and inspire the next generation of scientists and engineers,”
RSS