Taiwan expected to legalize surrogacy

[Angelica Cheng]

Regulatory Framework and Requirements for IVF business in Taiwan

The Central Intelligence Agency predicts that Taiwan will have the lowest fertility rate in the world in 2021, with an average of 1.07 births per…

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Surrogacy is still illegal in Taiwan. Nevertheless, legislative amendment drafts of the ARA concerning supporting surrogate pregnancy/surrogacy has passed its first reading fairly recently (Sitting No. 11 of the Sessions 1 dated on May 01, 2020).

Restrictions on surrogacy

Based on one of the drafts, surrogacy is expected to be legalized with a number of conditions, including (1) a surrogate mother will have to be a Taiwanese citizen who has already given birth; (2) only married women who have been diagnosed as suffering from infertility or diagnosed as being ametrous (absence of uterus) are allowed to enter into the agreement with a surrogate mother; (3) payment will be allowed in the form of reimbursement for treatment, nutrition and transportation, and a woman will only be allowed to serve as a surrogate for 3 times; (4) the surrogate mother will not be able to use her own eggs and will need to gain approval from her spouse if she’s married and the surrogate mother cannot use her spouse’s sperm either; and (5) there shall be an agreement between the recipient couple and the surrogate mother.

Requirements on surrogacy agreement

1. The surrogacy agreement shall be notarized;
2. The terms shall include rights of the surrogate mother, such as her privacy of health information and her right to be left undisturbed, her bodily autonomy during pregnancy, her right to visit the surrogate child after giving birth can be negotiated, her right to terminate or refuse to renew the agreement if the pregnancy failed during the same trimester, right to be insured with personal injury insurance by recipient couple; and
3. Surrogacy is based on the principle of helping the recipient couple, but the couple may provide certain compensation to the surrogate mother within the amount set by the government. The recipient couple shall also provide nutrition fees or nutritious supply, bear necessary check of the surrogate mother, consultation, medical, caring, transportation, wage loss, and other related fees.

Health officials estimate that there are about 400,000 couples affected by fertility problems in Taiwan. The Ministry of Health and Welfare in Taiwan has been subsidizing fertility treatments since 2015 to help these couples, beginning with mid-to-low income households. However, due to the aforementioned income restrictions, only 7 births have been achieved through the subsidizing program in the past 6 years. Therefore, advocates of assisted reproduction technologies consider the government should adjust the population policies to give more support to families that want to conceive. Also, for the recent amendment drafts of surrogate pregnancy, it’s been a long-awaited revision in the ARA. With many provisions of the legislation struck, advocates are urging the government to pass it to provide more rights to infertile couples and the surrogate mothers.