TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — The Ministry of Health and Welfare (MHOW) announced draft amendments to the Assisted Reproduction Act on Tuesday (May 14), clearing the way for surrogacy in Taiwan.
The amendments are expected to make surrogacy available to many heterosexual and gay couples. However, those applying for surrogacy as a means of assisted reproduction will need to meet strict requirements including health status and age restrictions.
Proposed amendments have already passed two hearings by the Health Promotion Administration (HPA) and one by the legislature. The amendments will be open for public review until July 13 and still require passage of a third reading of the legislature before being sent to the Cabinet for review and implementation as law, per UDN.
HPA Deputy Director Wei Shi-lun (魏璽倫) said, “Thailand and Israel have adopted relatively open surrogacy regulations, and if the draft amendment completes the third reading, Taiwan will become the first country in Asia to legalize surrogacy.”
Other legislators have also expressed their approval for surrogacy. KMT Legislator Chen Ching-hui (陳菁徽) said the MHOW’s draft surrogacy amendment is forward-looking in nature and may be a gift for people who have been waiting for a child for many years.
TPP Legislator Chen Chao-tzu (陳昭姿), a surrogacy advocate for thirty years, said, "Finally, we are taking the first step, and I hope we can keep moving forward and never look back." Chen hopes that incoming Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) will quickly review the amendments and make surrogacy legal.
According to the MHOW, as of 2022,17 countries around the world have legalized surrogacy, helping infertile couples or gay male couples realize their dream of having a child. Under the current Assisted Reproduction Act, only married heterosexual couples can undergo artificial reproduction. The new draft expands coverage to three groups previously excluded: same-sex married couples, single women, and surrogate mothers.
The draft amendment does limit those who can engage in surrogacy to include only the following groups: a couple where the wife does not have a uterus, lesbian partners who do not have a uterus, those unable to become pregnant due to congenital abnormalities of the uterus, immune diseases, those facing life-threatening pregnancy or childbirth, and gay couples where both spouses are men. In addition, at least one of the spouses must be under the age of fifty.
Women's groups have criticized surrogacy as a means of monetizing human reproduction. To counter this, the draft amendment refers to Israeli regulations limiting surrogacy to just one time. Only gestational surrogacy is permitted, where the surrogate mother only carries a single embryo that involves another person's egg.
The MOHW draft amendment also protects surrogate months such as a provision for fees that can be provided for nutrition, health exams, legal fees, insurance, transportation, lost working hours, and postpartum care. Before undertaking surrogacy, a special account for surrogacy expenses needs to be established, and the surrogate mother must purchase personal insurance.
After the surrogate mother gives birth, she is allowed to visit the surrogate child within the first two years of birth. In addition, those who use fraud or coercion to make a surrogate mother sign a contract will be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of no more than three years.
