Surrogate motherhood is still controversial and some points of contention need to be clarified through citizens’ conference meetings, the Bureau of Health Promotion said this weekend.
A two-day preparatory meeting before the formal consensus conference on the issue, scheduled to take place later this month, was held at National Taiwan University’s Department of Sociology this weekend, in the hope that 20 participants from the general public cOULD be briefed on the issue.
Associate professor OF sociology at the National Taiwan University, Lin Kuo-ming (林國明), said the bureau had commissioned the department to hold a consensus conference on surrogate motherhood in 2004, during which it had been concluded that it was to conditionally endorse surrogate motherhood and that the bureau should draft a surrogacy bill and have it passed BY the legislature.
However, nearly eight years have passed and the draft act has yet to win approval. To resolve the controversial issue, the bureau decided to hold a consensus conference again this year in order to provide reference to the government in its policymaking decisions.
The bureau said the main points of controversy that need discussion at the conference include the determination of applicable individuals, how to protect the rights of the consignors, the surrogate mother and the infant during pregnancy, as well as addressing the issue of when parenthood begins. They are also keen to address whether the surrogate mother should receive compensation for her pregnancy.
The controversial point of determining applicable individuals include whether donated sperm and eggs can be used in surrogacy for couples who have difficulty conceiving, the bureau said, adding that the original draft act stated that a child born through surrogacy should be considered the child of the consignors starting from the implant of the fertilized egg, while some experts consider adoption after birth to be a better solution.
The bureau said that although artificial reproductive technology is regulated by the law and managed under strict control in Taiwan, the controversial issue of surrogacy was provisionally excluded from the Artificial Reproduction Act (人工生殖法), and therefore surrogacy is still illegal.
With Web-based surrogacy advertisements becoming common, bureau Deputy Director Kung Hsien-lan (孔憲蘭) said the cases touch on a broad range of regulations which need to be considered.
An increase in Taiwanese boats using China-made automatic identification systems (AIS) could confuse coast guards patrolling waters off Taiwan’s southwest coast and become a loophole in the national security system, sources familiar with the matter said yesterday. Taiwan ADIZ, a Facebook page created by enthusiasts who monitor Chinese military activities in airspace and waters off Taiwan’s southwest coast, on Saturday identified what seemed to be a Chinese cargo container ship near Penghu County. The Coast Guard Administration went to the location after receiving the tip and found that it was a Taiwanese yacht, which had a Chinese AIS installed. Similar instances had also
GOOD DIPLOMACY: The KMT has maintained close contact with representative offices in Taiwan and had extended an invitation to Russia as well, the KMT said The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) would “appropriately handle” the fallout from an invitation it had extended to Russia’s representative to Taipei to attend its international banquet last month, KMT Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) said yesterday. US and EU representatives in Taiwan boycotted the event, and only later agreed to attend after the KMT rescinded its invitation to the Russian representative. The KMT has maintained long-term close contact with all representative offices and embassies in Taiwan, and had extended the invitation as a practice of good diplomacy, Chu said. “Some EU countries have expressed their opinions of Russia, and the KMT respects that,” he
VIGILANCE: The military is paying close attention to actions that might damage peace and stability in the region, the deputy minister of national defense said The People’s Republic of China (PRC) might consider initiating a hack on Taiwanese networks on May 20, the day of the inauguration ceremony of president-elect William Lai (賴清德), sources familiar with cross-strait issues said. While US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken’s statement of the US expectation “that all sides will conduct themselves with restraint and prudence in the period ahead” would prevent military actions by China, Beijing could still try to sabotage Taiwan’s inauguration ceremony, the source said. China might gain access to the video screens outside of the Presidential Office Building and display embarrassing messages from Beijing, such as congratulating Lai
Four China Coast Guard ships briefly sailed through prohibited waters near Kinmen County, Taipei said, urging Beijing to stop actions that endanger navigation safety. The Chinese ships entered waters south of Kinmen, 5km from the Chinese city of Xiamen, at about 3:30pm on Monday, the Coast Guard Administration said in a statement later the same day. The ships “sailed out of our prohibited and restricted waters” about an hour later, the agency said, urging Beijing to immediately stop “behavior that endangers navigation safety.” Ministry of National Defense spokesman Sun Li-fang (孫立方) yesterday told reporters that Taiwan would boost support to the Coast Guard