Should Surrogacy be legalized in Taiwan

 yenlin ku  27/05/2024

The Ministry of Health and Welfare introduced a draft revision of the Assisted Reproduction Act last week, adding a new chapter to legalize surrogacy. It specified that "surrogacy should be an altruistic act, not a commercial endeavor for profit." Accordingly, the draft recognizes the surrogate neither as the biological or legal mother of the child nor as a paid laborer. It prohibits the use of her eggs in the conception; and she must surrender motherhood to the intended parents at the birth of the child. Yet she could receive no wage except a limited amount of compensation for nutrition or supplements, required counseling, medical care, transportation, insurance, and loss of work hours. However, she is obliged to perform motherly duties and adhere to the Protection of Children and Youths Welfare and Rights Act, refraining from tobacco and alcohol. Moreover, on top of previous experience of pregnancy and childbirth, she must work non-stop for over nine months at the risk of her own life and health.

臺大經典辯論講座：支持代理孕母在台灣合法化與否？Debate at National Taiwan University on Whether surrogacy should be legalized in Taiwan

臺大經典辯論講座：支持代理孕母在台灣合法化與否？

https://www.facebook.com/NTUSA.Academics/videos/919168668285147/ 
12/19/2018

顧燕翎

         

         這是台大學生會學術部今年12月辦的一場辯論，原有邀請我擔任反方，因為很晚通知，沒有及時看到邀請函，未能出席。後來仔細看了連線，發現辯論中竟然將利他型代孕和商業型代孕混為一談，正方甚至籠統稱之為生育權，並引用國際法規對生育權的保障。但無論消歧公約(1979)或開羅宣言(1994)所稱的生育權，都是指生育者的基本人權，包括決定何時懷孕和政府應保障女性安全、可負擔的懷孕等，並未包含委託別人懷孕的權利和出借子宮的權利。再者，利他型代孕和商業型代孕也有根本的差異，後者將代孕視為一種女性的工作，可以收取酬勞；前者則認為收取酬勞無異出賣女體，有違人權，因此代孕僅能出於利他的動機，嚴禁收取酬勞，僅允許營養、醫療、旅遊（如加拿大）等有限的費用補助，在這些國家商業代孕是違法的。

Surrogacy in Taiwan: notes on the women's movement

Yenlin Ku 顧燕翎

Near the end of 2018 the Student Association of National Taiwan University organized a debate on whether surrogacy should be legalized in Taiwan and invited me to be on the negative side. Receiving the invitation at too late a date, I missed the opportunity to be present and watched the debate, carried out by two professors from different universities, on the internet.

        Surrogacy has been contested as a gender issue in Taiwan since the 1990s. The Ministry of Health (now Health and Welfare), under the pressure from infertile wives and medical doctors, passed the Act of Artificial Reproduction in 2007 to legalize IVF (in vitro fertilization). In the following years, the Ministry made attempts to add surrogacy to the Act. However, the draft was kept at bay by women’s and child protection groups, though supported by sexual libertarians.