(Revised Version) Should Surrogate Mother Be Legal in Taiwan?

        Nowadays, we face many problems and dilemmas in our surroundings, and we sometimes even can't come up with a solution to it, especially the events which have connection with technology and morality. Nowadays, the scientists invent a kind of technology that can make a couple bear their children in other women's womb. That really is beneficial for many people. In Taiwan, the government are planning to create a law that is to prevent the utilization of surrogate mother from abuses. Although it is still a draft, it means a big progress to this issue. However, the draft also enhances the controversy that whether it is alright to make this technology put into practice? There are two different positions in Taiwan, thus it is harder for this draft being passed in Congress. In my opinion, I oppose the legalization of surrogate mother for there are too many unpredictable problems that we can easily solve, but there are also some people support it. Thus, what I want to discuss is whether we should make the surrogate mother be legalized in Taiwan? There are some advantages and disadvantages to this issue, I will discuss it below.

        Referring to the advantages of the utilization of surrogate mothers, I think the most great profit to us is that we can easily solve the problems of infecundity for mothers which have no wombs because of serious illness or have the womb hypoplasia. Mothers who have the problems which I have mentioned may have another hope to have their genetic kids through the use of surrogate mothers, and that truly inspires those mothers a lot. On the other hand, those who have serious morning sickness that may influences the condition of working or those who have to work, but have difficulty to get out from bed during the procreation can find a way to solve these problems. Moreover, it can offer a good way for homosexuals to have their own genetic descendants by exchanging their sperms and ova between gays and lesbians. Nowadays, there are more and more homosexuals in the world, thus I think it is a good news and profit to them. Besides, it is also a kind of revelation of women's decision-making power which they can decide the way of having a child. There are many different kinds of advantages of using the surrogate mothers according to different mothers and situations, and we can also see that many areas make the surrogate mother legalize, such as England, Korea, Hong Kong, etc. Although they are all conditional to make it public to society, it still a critical progress in this event. Otherwise, it also reveals that it's not impossible to make it legalize peacefully and well-orderly.

        However, there are also many influences and disadvantages in the utilization of surrogate mother. We can discuss the drawback from different aspects because it affects diverse sides in our society and we can't nearly ignore it. First, I think the surrogate mothers may violate the contracts which mention that they have to return the children to their parents who provide sperms and ova, thus it may arose the disputes on legislation, even to legal proceedings. Otherwise, we can't neither avoid the surrogate mothers' unrelated demand during the time of pregnancy, and if the real parents don't consent their requests, will they hurt their children? That's a big question, and how can we solve it? Moreover, it may also results the confuse of children's self identification. That is, if children know that they aren't born from their own mother's womb but another woman's, they may have a messy self identification of who is their real mother? Besides, the child will be regarded as a product that can be sold and the procreation can be seen as a trade. Also, the cost of surrogate mother is too expensive, only people who are in high or middle-high social status can afford it. Thus, it may reinforce the gap between capitalists and laborers. Furthermore, it will also arose the problems of prenatal education: who should take this obligation and how does the prenatal work? In addition, if the concepts of prenatal education are different, how do they deal with and how can the real mother know if the surrogate mother do the same things as the result they discuss? That is worth pondering.

        There will be many problems result if surrogate mothers are legalized in Taiwan in the future, how can our government and society solve the following problems? Thus, as for me, I am standing in the strong position that oppose the legalization of surrogate mothers for we don't well-prepare for the precautionary measures of surrogate mother and it really leads to many problems as I mention above and sometimes the problems even can not be easily solved in our surroundings. Even we can find proper methods or precautions to solve the problems, we can't also see many unpredictable problems which we don't have any solutions to that hide in our society. Thus, in my opinion, the legalization of surrogate mothers can not be passed.