Amendments to reproductive rights focusing on women’s autonomy and supporting single and queer women who want to get pregnant have been submitted to the Executive Yuan, Health Promotion Administration Director-General Shen Ching-fen (沈靜芬) said today.
Shen spoke to media this morning prior to a press conference about blood pressure, saying that proposed amendments to the Assisted Reproduction Act (人工生殖法) supporting women’s reproductive autonomy are being reviewed by the Executive Yuan.
Photo: Chiu Chih-jou, Taipei Times
If a woman with viable eggs and a uterus wishes to get pregnant and give birth, the government should support her in realizing this dream, Shen said, adding that the scope of the amendment is limited to single and queer women.
Since Taiwan legalized same-sex marriage in 2019, more queer couples have begun raising children, but surrogacy is still prohibited domestically and seeking it abroad is in a legal gray area.
Recently, controversy has erupted online around overseas surrogacy cases.
One surrogacy case in Mexico resulted in quadruplets that led to claims of “buying children,” while another person who used a US surrogate was criticized for posting an unedited birth video and dismissing the need for prenatal checkups.
Shen said that every person has their own preferences and declined to comment on any specific case.
She emphasized that the privacy, rights and autonomy of surrogates are of the utmost importance, and that the interests of the child should be at the core of any birth plan.
The provisions in this amendment require assessing both parties’ circumstances before proceeding with assisted reproduction to ensure that the arrangement can serve the best interests of the future child, Shen said.
Taiwanese were praised for their composure after a video filmed by Taiwanese tourists capturing the moment a magnitude 7.5 earthquake struck Japan’s Aomori Prefecture went viral on social media. The video shows a hotel room shaking violently amid Monday’s quake, with objects falling to the ground. Two Taiwanese began filming with their mobile phones, while two others held the sides of a TV to prevent it from falling. When the shaking stopped, the pair calmly took down the TV and laid it flat on a tatami mat, the video shows. The video also captured the group talking about the safety of their companions bathing
US climber Alex Honnold is to attempt to scale Taipei 101 without a rope and harness in a live Netflix special on Jan. 24, the streaming platform announced on Wednesday. Accounting for the time difference, the two-hour broadcast of Honnold’s climb, called Skyscraper Live, is to air on Jan. 23 in the US, Netflix said in a statement. Honnold, 40, was the first person ever to free solo climb the 900m El Capitan rock formation in Yosemite National Park — a feat that was recorded and later made into the 2018 documentary film Free Solo. Netflix previewed Skyscraper Live in October, after videos
Starting on Jan. 1, YouBike riders must have insurance to use the service, and a six-month trial of NT$5 coupons under certain conditions would be implemented to balance bike shortages, a joint statement from transportation departments across Taipei, New Taipei City and Taoyuan announced yesterday. The rental bike system operator said that coupons would be offered to riders to rent bikes from full stations, for riders who take out an electric-assisted bike from a full station, and for riders who return a bike to an empty station. All riders with YouBike accounts are automatically eligible for the program, and each membership account
A classified Pentagon-produced, multiyear assessment — the Overmatch brief — highlighted unreported Chinese capabilities to destroy US military assets and identified US supply chain choke points, painting a disturbing picture of waning US military might, a New York Times editorial published on Monday said. US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth’s comments in November last year that “we lose every time” in Pentagon-conducted war games pitting the US against China further highlighted the uncertainty about the US’ capability to intervene in the event of a Chinese invasion of Taiwan. “It shows the Pentagon’s overreliance on expensive, vulnerable weapons as adversaries field cheap, technologically
RSS