The Health Promotion Administration is holding a hearing on surrogacy on Tuesday. At least ten women’s, LGBTQ+, and religious groups are invited to provide opinions on ethical and legal issues surrounding surrogacy.
The Health Ministry has moved the amendments to the Assisted Reproduction Act forward in the legislature as a priority and is expected to hold at least two hearings on the subject. The ministry has also invited relevant government agencies, legal experts, legislators, and children’s rights experts to provide consultation.
Chairperson of Taiwan Women’s Link Huang Shu-ing (黃淑英) told reporters that amending the Artificial Reproduction Act is a complex issue, with even greater complexity involving surrogate mothers. However, the Health Ministry has merged these two issues and only allowed each representative to speak for three to four minutes. She criticized the public hearing format as merely perfunctory, questioning whether the ministry only seeks opinions that align with its own preferences, disregarding any opposing voices.
Huang says she would stress the importance of balancing the needs of surrogate mothers, considering the harm caused to others in meeting one’s desire to have children.
Taiwan Equality Campaign’s Executive Director Joyce Teng (鄧筑媛) said in an interview that same-sex marriage has been legal for over four years, but many LGBTQ+ individuals still cannot have children. The legal amendments involve two parts: one is opening up artificial reproduction for single women and lesbians, while the other involves the more complex issue of surrogate mothers for gay men. Teng says that LGBTQ+ groups support the legal amendments in two stages, without disregarding gay men’s rights to parenthood.
Teng adds that despite the ongoing discussion, there has been no proposal for surrogacy legislation, and the Health Ministry has not yet presented a draft bill. It would take at least one to two years to discuss surrogacy legislation, by which time many single women and lesbians would have passed their prime childbearing years.