Legalization of Gestational Surrogacy in the East Asian Context? Lessons from the US Experiences
Dr. Diana Yunhsien Lin
Surrogacy involves gender, technology, ethics, law, and society, and has long been one of the most controversial issues in reproductive justice. The main reason lies in the requirement for another woman to undergo assisted reproduction, endure the physical demands of pregnancy for nine months, suffer the pain of childbirth, and relinquish parental rights afterward. Regardless of how the law is designed, surrogacy is often criticized for exploiting women, exacerbating class inequality, and commodifying children.
In light of this, this paper analyzes the major obstacles and potential solutions to the lack of legalization of surrogacy in Taiwan over the past 30 years, including whether it should be compensated, how to reduce exploitation of women, how to legally establish parent-child relationships, and who should have access to surrogacy services.
The research methods employed are comparative law and literature analysis. Since surrogacy laws in some U.S. states have evolved from prohibition in the 1990s to allowing surrogacy under certain conditions in recent years, this paper seeks to explore the factors behind these changes and what insights they may offer Taiwan.
This paper analyzes the drivers behind legislative reform in the U.S., differences between old and new laws, and the influence of gender advocacy groups. It then categorizes types of surrogacy regulations, examines how recent legislation addresses concerns about the exploitation of women and the commodification of reproduction, and finally identifies a trend in regulatory change toward protecting gestational mothers’ bodily autonomy and combating discrimination.