Taipei City Hospital yesterday acknowledged flaws in the regulations of its human milk bank after Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Taipei City councilors lashed out at the hospital for rejecting the donation of breast milk from a woman from Cambodia. The hospital promised to consider revoking restrictions on donor nationality.
The city hospital established the nation’s first public human milk bank in December 2004 to provide breast milk to infants born prematurely or who have infectious diseases.
Earlier this month, a foreign woman from Cambodia planned to donate breast milk to the bank, but hospital staff rejected her donation and said the bank only accepted milk from those born in Taiwan.
“The human milk bank follows strict screening procedures to assure the health of potential donors, but not accepting milk donations from those with other nationalities is clearly racial discrimination,” DPP Taipei City Councilor Wu Su-yao (吳思瑤) told a press conference yesterday.
DPP Taipei City Councilor Liang Wen-jie (梁文傑) joined Wu in questioning the city hospital’s regulations on breast milk donors, and demanded the hospital lift the restrictions on donor nationality.
The hospital’s milk bank requires donors to fill out a form detailing personal information and physical conditions. The hospital then conducts assessments on donors’ health and tests their blood samples, according to the hospital.
“Foreigners can donate blood in Taiwan so why can’t they donate breast milk? Are infants only allowed to drink milk that is made in Taiwan?” Liang said.
Fang Li-jung (方麗容), chief of the city hospital’s pediatrics department, yesterday denied any wilful attempt at racial discrimination by excluding foreigners from donating breast milk, and said limited experience in running a human milk bank and the language barrier had been the real factors behind the ban.
“The standard screening procedures for breast milk are complicated, and due to our limited experience in running a human milk bank back in 2004, we decided to limit eligible donors to Taiwanese nationals,” she said.
Because the human milk bank has now been in place for seven years, Fang said the city hospital will propose revoking the ban on foreigners donating breast milk in July during its regular meeting with experts and was likely to allow foreigners to make donations upon receiving approval in the meeting.
The human milk bank is the only government-sponsored milk bank in Taiwan and has collected more than 11,091 liters of breast milk since its foundation eight years ago.
The first of 10 new high-capacity trains purchased from South Korea’s Hyundai Rotem arrived at the Port of Taipei yesterday to meet the demands of an expanding metro network, Taipei Rapid Transit Corp (TRTC) said yesterday. The train completed a three-day, 1,200km voyage from the Port of Masan in South Korea, the company said. Costing NT$590 million (US$18.79 million) each, the new six-carriage trains feature a redesigned interior based on "human-centric" transportation concepts, TRTC said. The design utilizes continuous longitudinal seating to widen the aisles and optimize passenger flow, while also upgrading passenger information displays and driving control systems for a more comfortable
Taiwan's first indigenous defense submarine, the SS-711 Hai Kun (海鯤, or Narwhal), departed for its 13th sea trial at 7am today, marking its seventh submerged test, with delivery to the navy scheduled for July. The outing also marked its first sea deployment since President William Lai (賴清德) boarded the submarine for an inspection on March 19, drawing a crowd of military enthusiasts who gathered to show support. The submarine this morning departed port accompanied by CSBC Corp’s Endeavor Manta (奮進魔鬼魚號) uncrewed surface vessel and a navy M109 assault boat. Amid public interest in key milestones such as torpedo-launching operations and overnight submerged trials,
Quarantine awareness posters at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport have gone viral for their use of wordplay. Issued by the airport branch of the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Agency, the posters feature sniffer dogs making a range of facial expressions, paired with advisory messages built around homophones. “We update the messages for holidays and campaign needs, periodically refreshing materials to attract people’s attention,” quarantine officials said. “The aim is to use the dogs’ appeal to draw focus to quarantine regulations.” A Japanese traveler visiting Taiwan has posted a photo on X of a poster showing a quarantine dog with a
Taiwan’s coffee community has launched a “one-person-one-e-mail” campaign, calling for people to send a protest-e-mail to the World Coffee Championships (WCC) urging it to redesignate Taiwanese competitors as from “Taiwan,” rather than “Chinese Taipei.” The call followed sudden action last week after the WCC changed all references to Taiwanese competitors from “Taiwan” to “Chinese Taipei,” including recent World Latte Art champion Bala (林紹興), who won the World Latte Art Championship in San Diego earlier this month. When Bala received the trophy, he was referred to as representing Taiwan, as well as in the announcement on the WCC’s Web site, until it
RSS