Legalize surrogates, says panel

After a week of vigorous debate, a citizen panel on the controversial issue of surrogate motherhood hammered out a conclusion, urging the government to legalize and regulate the practice through the crafting of Surrogate Mother Law. The 20-member panel's conclusions, released in a white paper at a press conference yesterday, offered a signpost for the policy-making body in the Department of Health.

"We will submit our draft to the Executive Yuan in six months and expect the law to be ratified in the Legislative Yuan in a year," Director-general of the Department of Health Chen Chien-jen (陳建仁) said at the press conference. The panel's white paper is the nation's first official endorsement of surrogate motherhood, which is opposed by some who believe the practice demeans society.

The panel identified several categories of women who should be legally eligible to contract with a surrogate mother: married women who cannot conceive due to illness or disease, because they've had their uterus removed, or who have unsuccessfully tried several times to use reproductive technology. The panel did not specify how many unsuccessful attempts should be required, leaving that question open to further debate. The panel's proposal also requires that the married couple's sperm and egg must be fertile and that the embryo must be placed in the surrogate's uterus after in vitro fertilization.

The panel stated that the surrogate mother must be a Taiwanese citizen older than twenty and if married, must acquire her spouse's consent.

The panel left unresolved the question of whether women should be allowed to profit by becoming surrogates -- a sticking point for some critics of the practice.

"In allowing people to make money with their bodies, society demeans itself," said Chang Lee-ming (張立民), a doctor from Wanfang Hospital. "We should avoid commercialization of surrogate motherhood and protect the rights of the surrogate mother. Their mental and physical health is as priceless as those who crave to have children." Chang argued that most surrogate mothers come from lower social strata and usually do not fully realize the health risks involved.

"How can you expect a construction worker's wife, eager to earn money to support her family, to devote her time to studying details about pregnancy complications and the terms of the surrogacy contract?" Chang asked.

Chen Gau-tzu (陳昭姿), chief pharmacist at Taipei's Koo Foundation Sun Yat-sen Cancer Center, who once sought a surrogate mother to carry her own child, argued that paying surrogates could actually help liberate women. "The Gender Equality Labor Law (兩性工作平等法) clearly postulates that domestic labor should be paid. When reproduction and pregnancy becomes a job, we will look at the value of female labor in a new light. This, I would say, will elevate women's status in a patriarchal capitalist society."

To ensure the panel's impartiality, the 20 members were chosen at random from the 64 applicants nationwide who claimed they neither endorsed nor opposed the legalization of surrogate motherhood before the meeting. The panel members included a student, housewife, journalist, entrepreneur, farmer, tour guide, social worker and accountant.

"Our panelists come from a wide range of background. In the past days they took lessons in law, medical ethics and the adoption system and engaged in vigorous discussion," said Lin Kuo-ming (林國明), an associate professor at the National Taiwan University who helped organize the panel.

"The conclusion of the knowledgeable panelists is reasonable and can be put into practice," DOH Director-General Chen Chien-jen said. "The citizen panel is modeled on a deliberative democratic process, where all kinds of opinions are well ventilated ... In the future, other disputes, such as the coverage range of national health insurance, should also be put to a citizen panel."