The Ministry of Justice said it is mulling a proposal to establish a system that would allow people aged 65 and older to designate their future guardians while they are still in good mental health.
A bill to establish such a system has been drafted, and discussions on the proposal are currently taking place among relevant experts and academics, a Department of Legal Affairs official said.
Six rounds of discussion on the matter have already been held and there will soon be a seventh, the official said, adding on condition of anonymity that more discussions are still on the way.
As soon as the bill, which has been drafted as an amendment to the Civil Code, is completed, it is to be delivered to the Legislative Yuan for review and approval. Under the existing guardianship system stipulated in the Civil Code, custody of older individuals is almost always handed to their children or relatives.
In cases where an individual is unable to make a declaration of intent, receive a declaration of intent or lacks the ability to discern the outcome of a declaration of intent due to a mental disability, “the court may order the commencement of guardianship at the request of the person in question, his/her spouse, any relative within the fourth degree of kinship, a prosecutor, a competent authority or an organization of social welfare,” according to the Civil Code.
The proposed self-determinant custody system would allow older people to designate their guardians, who could be someone without blood ties, while they are still compos mentis, having command of mind, a report by the Liberty Times (the sister newspaper of the Taipei Times) said.
Such a system would have prevented an early 2012 dispute over custody of Wang Yueh-lan (王月蘭), the wife of late business tycoon Wang Yung-ching (王永慶), who was determined to be mentally disabled, the report said.
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