Amendment to Artificial Reproduction Law to Include Same-Sex Couples and Single Women

(Taipei, 16th) The Legislative Yuan's Environmental and Health Committee today reviewed the amended draft of the Artificial Reproduction Law. The amended version includes same-sex couples and single women as eligible applicants and adds a new provision that requires a professional assessment of the child's best interests before undergoing artificial reproduction. However, the initial review was not completed today and will be rescheduled for another time.

The Social Welfare and Environmental Hygiene Committee and the Judicial and Legal Affairs Committee of the Legislative Yuan held a joint meeting today to review the amended draft of the Artificial Reproduction Law. The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislators proposed to only review the version that does not involve surrogate mothers, which was passed by a vote.

However, during the review of Article 3, Legislator Chen Chao-tzu of the Taiwan People's Party raised objections, arguing that the purpose of artificial reproductive medicine is to help infertile patients, and that single women and same-sex couples are not infertile patients. She criticized the version proposed by the Ministry of Health and Welfare for not including surrogate mothers and ignoring the rights of infertile patients.

In the end, the amended version of the Executive Yuan was passed by a vote of 7 to 2 after textual adjustments. The passed articles changed the term from "couples undergoing the procedure" to "spouses undergoing the procedure," and added female couples who are parties to the case as defined in Article 2 of the Interpretation of the Judicial Yuan No. 748. Single women were also added to the list of eligible applicants.

Regarding the recipients of artificial reproduction, the eligible applicants include couples or same-sex female couples where at least one party can become pregnant and give birth using their uterus, and at least one party can use their reproductive cells, and have passed the examination and evaluation. Single women who are at least 18 years old, have a registered residence, have lived in the country for at least 183 days each year for the past 5 years, have healthy eggs, and can become pregnant and give birth using their uterus are also eligible.

In addition, the methods of artificial reproduction include implanting embryos formed from the reproductive cells of the couple, implanting embryos formed from the reproductive cells of one of the spouses undergoing the procedure and reproductive cells donated by a third party, and implanting sperm donated by a third party into the female spouse undergoing the procedure.

To protect the rights of children born through artificial reproduction, the articles were amended to require that before undergoing artificial reproduction, a professional assessment of the child's best interests must be conducted by a professional institution designated by the central competent authority. The professional institution and its assessors must have gender equality awareness and adhere to the principle of avoiding conflicts of interest.

Furthermore, the articles lowered the minimum age for donation for both men and women to 18 years old and reduced the maximum age for male donors from 50 to 40 years old. Regarding donation records, it is now possible to include information about the donor's interests, beliefs, or other information that cannot identify their identity, which can be used by children born through artificial reproduction to learn about their origins.

However, after a 20-minute lunch break, Legislators Chen Chao-tzu and Chiu Hui-hsu of the Taiwan People's Party, who had participated in the review, left the venue, and there were no Kuomintang legislators present. After reviewing Article 13, the chair of the meeting, DPP Legislator Lin Yue-chin, announced the adjournment, and the bill will be reviewed again at a later date. The initial review was not completed. (Edited by Lin Ke-lun) 1150716

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