TAIPEI (TVBS News) — Democratic Progressive Party (DPP, 民進黨) legislators on Monday (Dec. 2) urged the decoupling of assisted reproduction from surrogate motherhood to protect women's bodily autonomy. Legislators expressed concerns about women and children becoming commodities as the Legislative Yuan (立法院) prepares to review the Assisted Reproduction Act (人工生殖法) on Thursday.
The act involves issues such as lesbian couples and single women using assisted reproduction and the surrogate mother system. Sixteen versions from various legislators may undergo a clause-by-clause review, with the DPP's version excluding surrogacy. In contrast, the Kuomintang (KMT, 國民黨) and Taiwan People's Party (TPP, 民眾黨) versions include it.
Huang Shiou-fang (黃秀芳), a DPP legislator, emphasized the need to separate surrogacy from the Assisted Reproduction Act, highlighting its impact on women's bodily autonomy. DPP Legislator Lin Yueh-chin (林月琴) pointed out that surrogate mothers and their children could become victims of multiple forms of violence, with surrogacy failing to alleviate poverty for women and posing abandonment risks for children.
DPP Legislator Kuo Yu-ching (郭昱晴) argued that the pressure for surrogacy often comes from in-laws, asserting that women should choose whether to give birth and not have their value defined by it. DPP Legislator Huang Chieh (黃捷) criticized the potential approval of surrogacy without proper measures, likening it to the exploitation of women's wombs and failing to address "kinship surrogacy," where sisters may be forced into surrogacy.
Lin called on the public not to open surrogacy based on industrial demand, warning against the commercialization of wombs, which poses significant societal risks.