Women’s rights advocates and single mothers yesterday called for a revision to the Civil Code (民法) to allow adults to freely choose whether to take their father’s or mother’s family name without having to obtain parental consent.
The advocates made the call at a public hearing on a revision to the clause at the legislature, hosted by Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator John Chiang (蔣孝嚴).
“I have been divorced for 30 years after domestic abuse and my son is now 32 years old. Since his father got married again and never even came to see the child once, my son wants to change his surname from his father’s to mine,” Chang Shu-chen (張淑珍), a single mother, told reporters before the meeting.
“His request was turned down by a court, which said the surname does not have any negative impact on his life since his father is not a criminal,” she said, showing a copy of the court ruling. “Does this make sense? My son is a grown man, he feels close to my family name because I brought him up alone, but the court denies him the right to take my name.”
Chang said her son was not the only once facing such a situation.
The current version of the law says children can only take their mother’s maiden name as their own if both parents agree to it.
“The law is a clear example of gender inequality because it implies that a mother’s maiden name can only be a secondary choice when it comes to choosing a surname for a child,” Sandra Peng (彭渰雯) told the public hearing.
“It fails to respect the rights of an adult by requiring him or her to receive consent from both parents,” she said.
Chiang, who changed his surname, supported the call.
“Changing your surname is a very difficult and challenging process, because you have to change your name on your national ID card, driver’s license, diplomas and all other official documents,” he said. “I don’t think anyone would want to change their surnames unless they feel it’s absolutely necessary.”
Chiang, the illegitimate son of late president Chiang Ching-kuo (蔣經國), originally took his mother’s maiden name Chang (章) as his surname until he was proven to be Chiang Ching-kuo’s son and officially changed his surname to Chiang in 2005.
“Besides, when you change your name, your national ID number remains the same, so there wouldn’t be any confusion as far as government authorities are concerned,” he added.
However, the Ministry of Justice said it was not in favor of such a revision.
“We’re not opposed to surname changes with consent from both parents, but think about what would happen if an adult insists on changing his or her surname regardless of objections from one or both parents?”
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
UNAWARE: Many people sit for long hours every day and eat unhealthy foods, putting them at greater risk of developing one of the ‘three highs,’ an expert said More than 30 percent of adults aged 40 or older who underwent a government-funded health exam were unaware they had at least one of the “three highs” — high blood pressure, high blood lipids or high blood sugar, the Health Promotion Administration (HPA) said yesterday. Among adults aged 40 or older who said they did not have any of the “three highs” before taking the health exam, more than 30 percent were found to have at least one of them, Adult Preventive Health Examination Service data from 2022 showed. People with long-term medical conditions such as hypertension or diabetes usually do not
POLICE INVESTIGATING: A man said he quit his job as a nurse at Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital as he had been ‘disgusted’ by the behavior of his colleagues A man yesterday morning wrote online that he had witnessed nurses taking photographs and touching anesthetized patients inappropriately in Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital’s operating theaters. The man surnamed Huang (黃) wrote on the Professional Technology Temple bulletin board that during his six-month stint as a nurse at the hospital, he had seen nurses taking pictures of patients, including of their private parts, after they were anesthetized. Some nurses had also touched patients inappropriately and children were among those photographed, he said. Huang said this “disgusted” him “so much” that “he felt the need to reveal these unethical acts in the operating theater
Heat advisories were in effect for nine administrative regions yesterday afternoon as warm southwesterly winds pushed temperatures above 38°C in parts of southern Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 3:30pm yesterday, Tainan’s Yujing District (玉井) had recorded the day’s highest temperature of 39.7°C, though the measurement will not be included in Taiwan’s official heat records since Yujing is an automatic rather than manually operated weather station, the CWA said. Highs recorded in other areas were 38.7°C in Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門), 38.2°C in Chiayi City and 38.1°C in Pingtung’s Sandimen Township (三地門), CWA data showed. The spell of scorching