Mon, Aug 09, 2004 page2

• Critics assail panel on surrogate parenthood

  WHO SAYS? A government panel says it will reach its conclusions without bias, but other experts ask how panelists can claim objectivity on such a personal matter

  • By Wang Hsiao-wen / STAFF REPORTER
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  When the Department of Health (DOH) announced last month that a citizen panel will be formed on a "Western model" to solicit public opinions on surrogate motherhood, few expected the panel to reach a consensus on the controversy.

  "The procedures of the meeting are questionable," said Josephine Ho (何春蕤), a professor of gender studies from National Central University. "Can the randomly selected members represent the general public? Must the issue of surrogate motherhood be put to a vote? Is this issue to be decided by the majority in the society? What rights do we have to say yes or no to other people's decisions if they do not harm us?"

  The question of whether and how to legalize surrogate motherhood has sparked contention since the Guidelines for the Ethics of Human Procreation and Reproductive Technologies (人工生殖技術倫理指導綱領) were announced in 1986 and the Regulations of Human Reproductive Technologies (人工生殖技術管理辦法) took effect in 1994.

  "The discussion is replete with polarized opinions of different groups. Childless couples, doctors, lawyers, feminists, social activists, officials all have their own take on the issue," said Lin Shio-jean (林秀娟), the director of DOH's Bureau of Health Promotion.

  Among three different drafts to revise the reproduction law, only one version, proposed by Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Lai Ching-te (賴清德), includes articles to define and regulate surrogate motherhood. The other two suggested revisions, under review in the DOH and Legislative Yuan respectively, drop this thorny issue.

  "Because we still need more debates and to get more people to understand the pros and cons of this matter, we cannot rashly put it in our draft," Lin said.

  To seek public views before a legal decision, the DOH arranged a citizen panel and declared that this panel's conclusion, although not legally binding, will offer important guidance for the policy-making body. Lin Kuo-ming (林國明), an National Taiwan University sociology associate professor who helped organize the forum, said that preparatory meetings will be held on Aug. 28 and Aug. 29 and the formal meetings will be held from Sept. 11 to Sept. 18.

  Many sources questioned the legitimacy and impartiality of the meeting. With its 12 to 20 members randomly chosen or recommended by borough heads, the forum can hardly represent 23 million people's opinions.

  While coordinator Lin Kuo-ming said that the panel will seek participants without fixed stances on the issue in order to ensure an "objective" approach, Ho said that such presumptions were naive and unpractical.

  "How can anyone not have a subjective view? Even if one doesn't endorse or oppose surrogate motherhood, he or she will still see this specific issue from the looking-glass of gender equality, family normalcy, parent-child relationships, individual autonomy and a number of others," Ho said.

  Others doubted the small group's capability to look into the question from a broad and diverse perspective. "How are they going to gauge the merits of legalizing surrogate motherhood? From a sterile mother's perspective? A surrogate mother's perspective? Or the child's perspective?" asked Wang Yu-ming (王育敏), the chief executive of the Child Welfare League Foundation.

  "The meeting is a facade of democracy. The logic behind the citizen panel is that the minority must be subject to the majority's decision. Yet this ignores the fact that a majority's decision sometimes fails to protect the rights of the minority," Ho said.

  "Maybe a comprehensive survey or opinion poll can reflect changing social attitudes more than the citizen panel," Wang said.
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