The Department of Health (DOH) is considering financing artificial reproduction efforts as a last resort to boost the nation’s declining birth rate, after a spate of measures to reverse the trend have not produced the desired results.
The DOH’s Bureau of Health Promotion is expected to propose the idea at a meeting called by the Ministry of the Interior that will discuss policy incentives to increase Taiwan’s birth rate.
Wu Hsiu-ying (吳秀英), deputy director-general of the bureau, said Taiwan can emulate its Asian neighbors, including Japan, Singapore and South Korea, by financially supporting artificial reproduction.
In South Korea, Wu said, married women under the age of 45 who are unable to have children are allowed to apply up to two times for a grant of NT$50,000 (US$1,563) to participate in an artificial reproduction program.
Professionals with the Taiwanese Society for Reproductive Medicine welcomed the idea.
Wu Kuo-chang (武國璋), director of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Tri-Service General Hospital, said that between 8,000 and 10,000 child-seeking Taiwanese couples try to have babies through artificial reproduction each year at an average cost of NT$100,000 per attempt.
“If the government subsidizes half of the cost, equal to between NT$400 million and NT$500 million a year, it would help those who want to have children but can’t, contribute to the birth rate,” Wu said.
Chen Hsin-fu (陳信孚), a doctor at National Taiwan University Hospital’s Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility Division, said the number of couples seeking to reproduce artificially increased by more than one-third in South Korea after its government implemented the financial assistance plan.
If Taiwan follows suit, based on an average test tube baby success rate of between 25 percent and 35 percent, an additional 1,000 new babies could be born in the country each year, Chen said.
Lee Mao-sheng (李茂盛), a board member of the Taiwanese Society for Reproductive Medicine, said Taiwan has among the lowest birth rates in the world at 8.3 births per 1,000 people, comparable to Germany and even lower than Austria and Japan, countries with traditionally low birth rates.
Citing statistics by the Ministry of the Interior, Lee said that last year there were 191,310 babies born in Taiwan, a decrease of 3.7 percent from the previous year.
With roughly about one in seven married couples finding it difficult to have a child, financial assistance could help stem the decline, Lee said.
“If the funding incentive is implemented, child-seeking Taiwanese couples, financially disadvantaged ones in particular, will directly benefit,” Lee said.
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