The Cabinet yesterday approved a bill regulating research involving human embryos and stem cells while banning human cloning.
The draft bill, which will be sent to the legislature, stipulates a prison sentence of one to seven years and fines of NT$2 million (US$65,000) for researchers found guilty of violating the ban.
The Cabinet’s proposal marked the first time the executive branch has referred regulations on the research field to the legislature.
The draft says the regulation is intended to ensure freedom of scientific research while preventing unethical reproduction of human embryos and stem cells out of respect for human dignity.
“The potential for health treatment from research into human embryos and stem cells is exciting, but the controversy surrounding the experiments concerning ethics, life and culture should also be addressed,” Premier Liu Chao-shiuan (劉兆玄) told the Cabinet meeting.
In related news, the Cabinet yesterday held a two-day conference for senior Cabinet officials to intensify coordination among various agencies on key policies.
President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), top officials from the Presidential Office and Cabinet officials spent the night at an employee training center owned by the Bank of Taiwan last night and were to go on a mountain hike this morning.
Ma praised the premier and his Cabinet for their performance over the past two months, saying they had accomplished a lot that had been left unfinished over the past 10 years and that will benefit the public and influence the country’s long-term development.
Cabinet officials were classified into five groups on the basis of the type of work of their agencies and would discuss major issues facing the country and draw up a list of projects the government should complete in the next year-and-a-half, Liu said.
Liu said he would make the blueprint public at a press conference today.
Starlux Airlines, Taiwan’s newest international carrier, has announced it would apply to join the Oneworld global airline alliance before the end of next year. In an investor conference on Monday, Starlux Airlines chief executive officer Glenn Chai (翟健華) said joining the alliance would help it access Taiwan. Chai said that if accepted, Starlux would work with other airlines in the alliance on flight schedules, passenger transits and frequent flyer programs. The Oneworld alliance has 13 members, including American Airlines, British Airways, Cathay Pacific and Qantas, and serves more than 900 destinations in 170 territories. Joining Oneworld would also help boost
A new tropical storm formed late yesterday near Guam and is to approach closest to Taiwan on Thursday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. Tropical Storm Pulasan became the 14th named storm of the year at 9:25pm yesterday, the agency said. As of 8am today, it was near Guam traveling northwest at 21kph, it said. The storm’s structure is relatively loose and conditions for strengthening are limited, WeatherRisk analyst Wu Sheng-yu (吳聖宇) said on Facebook. Its path is likely to be similar to Typhoon Bebinca, which passed north of Taiwan over Japan’s Ryukyu Islands and made landfall in Shanghai this morning, he said. However, it
Taiwan's Gold Apollo Co (金阿波羅通信) said today that the pagers used in detonations in Lebanon the day before were not made by it, but by a company called BAC which has a license to use its brand. At least nine people were killed and nearly 3,000 wounded when pagers used by Hezbollah members detonated simultaneously across Lebanon yesterday. Images of destroyed pagers analyzed by Reuters showed a format and stickers on the back that were consistent with pagers made by Gold Apollo. A senior Lebanese security source told Reuters that Hezbollah had ordered 5,000 pagers from Taiwan-based Gold Apollo. "The product was not
COLD FACTS: ‘Snow skin’ mooncakes, made with a glutinous rice skin and kept at a low temperature, have relatively few calories compared with other mooncakes Traditional mooncakes are a typical treat for many Taiwanese in the lead-up to the Mid-Autumn Festival, but a Taipei-based dietitian has urged people not to eat more than one per day and not to have them every day due to their high fat and calorie content. As mooncakes contain a lot of oil and sugar, they can have negative health effects on older people and those with diabetes, said Lai Yu-han (賴俞含), a dietitian at Taipei Hospital of the Ministry of Health and Welfare. “The maximum you can have is one mooncake a day, and do not eat them every day,” Lai