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Latest Surrogacy News
Insemination Bill stalls, again
By Joy Su
STAFF REPORTER Thursday, Jun 10, 2004
Taipei Times
LEGAL IMPASSE: The
legislature has taken almost 10 years but it still
hasn't passed a law specifying how to regulate
artificial insemination and surrogate motherhood
Legislation regulating
artificial insemination and surrogate motherhood will
have to wait until at least September after last-ditch
attempts to pass the law yesterday met with resistance
at the Legislative Yuan.
Taking advantage of a
final opportunity to review bills before the Legislative
Yuan goes into recess on Saturday, Democratic
Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Tony Jian (簡肇棟), as
convener of the Health, Environment and Social Welfare
committee, tacked contesting drafts of the Artificial
Insemination Law (人工生殖法草案) on to the committee agenda on
Tuesday night.
The drafts were to have
been discussed from 11am to 2pm yesterday, though
committee sessions are rarely conducted around noon.
The last-minute
addition caused a row among DPP lawmakers, with
Legislator Shen Fu-hsiung (沈富雄) accusing Jian of
sneaking the draft law onto the agenda despite the
Department of Health lacking its own version of the
bill.
Currently, two versions
of the bill have been put on the table, one authored by
DPP Legislator Lai Ching-te (賴清德) and the other by
independent Legislator Chiu Chuang-liang (邱創良). The
department has yet to present its own draft.
"The health department
has failed to put up its draft bill because it's facing
great difficulties. Under these circumstances, it is
improper to force the bill through the legislature.
Arranging for a review of the bill at noon does not
accord with the requirements of the legislative
process," Shen said.
Stalled for around a
decade, the bill has yet to clear the legislature, until
which time no legal framework covers the regulation of
artificial insemination and surrogacy. Artificial
insemination is currently policed under departmental
regulations which also prohibit surrogate motherhood.
Lin Shio-jean (林秀娟),
director-general of the department's Bureau of Health
Promotion, described the difficulties facing the
department in drafting the bill.
"Firstly, we don't know
if we can agree to legalizing surrogate motherhood. The
draft laws we have right now are not very specific and
would be unable to handle the issues adequately," Lin
said.
Lin said that because
surrogate motherhood is covered by the Artificial
Insemination Law, the legalization of procedures not
deemed to be as controversial has been blocked.
Lin said the department
in September would propose that legal articles
pertaining to surrogate motherhood be lifted from the
current law and dealt with separately and at a later
date.
"This is a very complex
issue and requires a degree of thought to be put into
medical, legal, human rights and ethical considerations.
For example, if it is legalized, should it be covered by
National Health Insurance?" department Director-General
Chen Chien-jen (陳建仁) asked.
Lin said the department
would most likely wait until a conference held at the
National Taiwan University in September reaches some
conclusions on the matter before venturing its own
draft.
Lin said the law needs
to guarantee the rights of both the surrogate mother and
the child. She criticized the drafts issued by Lai and
Chiu, saying that they did not mention the rights of the
child or custody matters. In previous years, the
possibility of the commercialization of surrogacy has
also been a point of concern.
Lin added that marital
status offered another complication. Lai's version of
the law would allow unmarried couples access to
artificial insemination services.
The international
community is also divided on the issue -- of those
jurisdictions with legislation covering surrogate
motherhood, 13 prohibit it and 9 permit it. Countries
with prohibitions are Austria, the Czech Republic,
Denmark, France, Germany, Mexico, Norway, Saudi Arabia,
Singapore, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland. Surrogacy is
legal in Brazil, Hong Kong, Hungary, Israel, Mexico,
Holland, South Africa, Turkey, the UK and some states in
the US.
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