Parents’ groups yesterday urged that the debate over a proposed amendment to the Assisted Reproduction Act (人工生殖法) consider the need for greater disclosure to patients of potential health risks associated with assisted reproduction.
“Before any amendments are made, stakeholders should disclose impact assessment reports and clarify whether any related risks have been overlooked,” Action Alliance on Basic Education chairman Wang Han-yang (王瀚陽) said at a news conference in Taipei.
Wang said the three parents’ groups at the news conference were not against the proposed amendment, which would grant single women and married female couples access to assisted reproductive technology.
Photo: CNA
However, assisted reproductive technology-related health risks have not been fully addressed in public hearings or legislative deliberations related to the proposed amendment, he said.
Article 12 of the Assisted Reproduction Act currently stipulates that a medical institution must explain “any possible complications or hazards” of assisted reproduction to the recipient couple, without clearly spelling out what information must be disclosed.
Wang said that the “possible complications or hazards” cited in Article 12 mainly focus on risks to the woman during pregnancy rather than the potential health risks for the child.
Those child-related risks, including preterm and underweight births, should be clearly included in the informed consent form signed by both parties, and medical institutions should be required to ensure that applicants fully understand the information, he said.
He called for those specific disclosure requirements to be written into the law.
To push for such changes, Wang said parents’ groups reached out to lawmakers and the Ministry of Health and Welfare yesterday, and planned to hold meetings to press their case.
Among the risks is that babies conceived through assisted reproductive technology have a prematurity rate (defined as delivery before 37 weeks of pregnancy) of 26.4 percent, Health Promotion Administration 2023 data showed, Wang said.
The 26.4 percent rate was about 2.4 times the national average, he said.
Also, the low birth weight rate, defined as weighing less than 2.5kg at birth, was 25.7 percent among assisted reproductive technology births, about 2.3 times the national average, he added.
In a prerecorded video, neonatologist Cheng Yi (鄭弋) said preterm infants conceived through assisted reproduction tend to have poorer lung function because their lungs are not fully developed, and that the gap with full-term infants could persist into adulthood.
Low birth weight babies are 2.5 times more likely to develop diabetes later in life than those born at a normal weight, Cheng said.
“We can help them survive and grow up, but the problem is their health might still not be good,” Cheng added.
Wang said preterm birth and low birth weight are also “major risk factors” for developmental delays, and that children with these issues often need long-term medical rehabilitation and special education support.
He said that if the proposed amendment led to a surge in newborns at high risk of health complications, the already strained National Health Insurance system and special education services could be pushed to the brink.
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