Former Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) chairman Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) visited lawmakers of different parties yesterday to push for the passage of an amendment to the Assisted Reproduction Act (人工生殖法).
It was the first time that Ko, a former Taipei mayor, appeared at the Legislative Yuan since being released on NT$70 million (US$2.2 million) bail in September last year in a corruption case.
He had been detained since late 2024 on allegations that he accepted bribes related to the Core Pacific City development project in 2022 during his tenure as mayor and embezzled political donations during his 2024 presidential campaign.
Photo: Tien Yu-hua, Taipei Times
Speaking with reporters, Ko said amending the Assisted Reproduction Act would benefit the public and it would be inappropriate for political parties to fight over the bill and “oppose it simply for the sake of opposing it.”
“I’m here to persuade the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) to support the amendment to the act,” Ko said. “The act does not involve ideology. It’s for the public’s good.”
Last month, the Cabinet unveiled an amendment to the act, aiming to extend access to assisted reproduction from infertile heterosexual couples to single women and married lesbian couples.
Photo: Liao Chen-huei, Taipei Times
Under the proposals drafted by the Ministry of Health and Welfare, single women and lesbian couples would be granted access to
assisted reproductive technology.
Another proposal by TPP Legislator Chen Gao-tzu (陳昭姿), a doctor-
turned-politician, has pushed for since early 2024 would include a surrogate mother mechanism, but the DPP has opposed the idea, which Chen criticized for putting politics above public welfare.
As Chen is to step down as a TPP legislator-at-large after serving in the role for two years based on party rules, Ko showed up at the Legislative Yuan to seek support for Chen’s proposal before her term ends.
Ko said that after his release, he had read court documents every day for oral arguments in the bribery case hearing in the Taipei District Court, but since the trial has ended, he had time to visit political parties and urge them to pass Chen’s amendment.
Ko, who maintained that he was not guilty during the trial, is scheduled to receive a verdict on March 26.
In response to media queries for comment, Health Promotion Administration (HPA) Director-General Shen Ching-fen (沈靜芬) said the HPA has referenced other countries and gathered opinions from medical, academic and social groups as it wrote its amendment draft with plans to extend the application of the act to include female same-sex couples who have completed marriage registration, as well as unmarried women, in response to the actual needs of diverse family structures.
Surrogacy involves multiple aspects including ethical, legal, maternal and infant health and human rights issues, Shen said
Saying there must still be a comprehensive assessment based on international practices, the national situation, social expectations and the best interests of children, she stressed the need to strengthen communication and build a consensus.
Additional reporting by Ho Chia-yu
Taiwan has received more than US$70 million in royalties as of the end of last year from developing the F-16V jet as countries worldwide purchase or upgrade to this popular model, government and military officials said on Saturday. Taiwan funded the development of the F-16V jet and ended up the sole investor as other countries withdrew from the program. Now the F-16V is increasingly popular and countries must pay Taiwan a percentage in royalties when they purchase new F-16V aircraft or upgrade older F-16 models. The next five years are expected to be the peak for these royalties, with Taiwan potentially earning
STAY IN YOUR LANE: As the US and Israel attack Iran, the ministry has warned China not to overstep by including Taiwanese citizens in its evacuation orders The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday rebuked a statement by China’s embassy in Israel that it would evacuate Taiwanese holders of Chinese travel documents from Israel amid the latter’s escalating conflict with Iran. Tensions have risen across the Middle East in the wake of US and Israeli airstrikes on Iran beginning Saturday. China subsequently issued an evacuation notice for its citizens. In a news release, the Chinese embassy in Israel said holders of “Taiwan compatriot permits (台胞證)” issued to Taiwanese nationals by Chinese authorities for travel to China — could register for evacuation to Egypt. In Taipei, the ministry yesterday said Taiwan
Taiwan is awaiting official notification from the US regarding the status of the Agreement on Reciprocal Trade (ART) after the US Supreme Court ruled US President Donald Trump's global tariffs unconstitutional. Speaking to reporters before a legislative hearing today, Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) said that Taiwan's negotiation team remains focused on ensuring that the bilateral trade deal remains intact despite the legal challenge to Trump's tariff policy. "The US has pledged to notify its trade partners once the subsequent administrative and legal processes are finalized, and that certainly includes Taiwan," Cho said when asked about opposition parties’ doubts that the ART was
If China chose to invade Taiwan tomorrow, it would only have to sever three undersea fiber-optic cable clusters to cause a data blackout, Jason Hsu (許毓仁), a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute and former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislator, told a US security panel yesterday. In a Taiwan contingency, cable disruption would be one of the earliest preinvasion actions and the signal that escalation had begun, he said, adding that Taiwan’s current cable repair capabilities are insufficient. The US-China Economic and Security Review Commission (USCC) yesterday held a hearing on US-China Competition Under the Sea, with Hsu speaking on
RSS