Transcription 2

Okay, I’m…standing on the opposing side.

In my annotation 3 & 4, I mainly focus on the law problems which are related to adultery…adultery. First, I will…I’m going to tell you the pu…umm…the punishments for adultery in many…in different countries. First is Taiwan, according to the article 2… 239 in criminal code, umm…the cheated people and the outside lover will both be punished, and the maximum sentence is a year. In others East Asian countries like South Korea, North Korea, or Japan, adultery has been a crime for many years as well. And in India, if a man…umm…has…umm…if a man… a man will be sentenced for up to five years if he has sex with a woman without her husband’s approval. The most cruelest punishment is in Muslim countries, if you commit au…adultery, you will be stoning to death. (pause)Umm …If adultery is accepted, why there are still many countries have punishments for this behavior? The function of this law is not just to punish the cheated people, it is also a method for us to remind…umm…remind not to forget the family obligation. The author wants us to understand that love is not the only thing in marriage, but obligation and duty is…also…also play an important role. Umm…According to a reporter called Hsia His, and she said that “If you don’t love your spouse anymore, please be brave to get divorce, and then you can pursue the relationship without the restriction of marriage.” She also mentioned that people who are not married have sexual liberty. It is alright if you’re not married, you have the sexual liberty, but when you are married, you can’t have sexual liberty, because it is unfair to your spouse and to your family. (pause)umm… a controversial issue recently is that should we abolish the crime of adultery in Taiwan? According to an opi…opinion poll conducted by Ministry of Justice still shows that there are 82% people oppose this idea, also, there are 86% people think that it’s reason… reasonable to punish the cheated people by the Criminal Code. This survey shows that people in Taiwan regard the law as a protection for the abandoned partner or for family, at least, it’s a moral support from government, and also a method for the abandoned partners to fight bact…fight back and gain compensation. Umm…please think this way, the situation…the situation of having an affair in Taiwan is common now even if this law exists, umm… can you imagine how serious this problem will be if the law was abolished? It’s really horrible. And it’s just like the speed limit on the highway. If there was no speed limit on highway, I think many of you will drive really fast, right? So, if adultery was abolished, people might think having affairs is legitimate. They will ignore and try to escape the responsibility they should take. Moreover, umm…affair…more…affair that is short of self-examination might cause more domestic violence. And if adultery is not a crime anymore, we may…we may face the problem of promiscuity 性氾濫. (pause) And then I will talk about the reason why European countries and the USA stand for abolishing this crime. Umm…It’s because in Euro…in Euro…in Europe and the USA they have well protection for the abandoned partners. But in Taiwan, we don’t. Our Civil Law is not perfect enough to compensate the abandoned partner. And also different countries have different cultures. Is it really appropriate to follow other’s step without considering our own cultural background? In conclusion, both legal sanctions and ethical restriction are indispensable methods to prevent the spread affairs. As soon as you get married, you don’t have the right to reject fulfilling the obligation ...umm fulfilling the family obligation. And considering to our own cultural background, it’s not proper to abolish this crime. Thank you. 
Professor: Okay. Questions and answers section. Anyone?

Claire: Okay.

Tim: I want to make comment. I think rather than to abolish law against adultery, furthermore, why we shouldn’t dismantle the marriage institution? Because marriage institution…I want to response to Claire, you say, if you want sexual liberty, why do you just out of the marriage? But,many legal rights is attached to the identity, and our marriage system is discriminalize…is discriminate the person who enter…who are not enter this system. So, and marriage…marriage and family…marriage, family and nation is conspired with each other, and act in a way to exploitation of labor. Not labors from the workers and from domestic worker. Thank you.

Claire& I: Thank you.

Professor: Maybe you can assign one or two to ask you questions.

Claire: Do you have any question? (pause) Or you can give comment.

Vivian: Umm…I want to ask Claire, because you support abortion, and…

Claire: Adultery.

Vivian: Adultery. (laughing) adultery. Do you have any premise for committing adultery?

Professor: Or condition. Under which condition

Claire: it usually happens when a couple’s marriage is not happy. And…and when it comes to adultery’s positive effects, not means the…the couple wants to solve problems, but they want to get divorced, so they choose adultery.

Vivian: And why don’t they just get divorced?

Claire: Because there are so many reasons like kids. If you get divorced, you cannot…you cannot expect…you cannot imagine your kids will be, like in the future, your kids may take drugs or umm…become so…become so bad, and you can get controlled of them. So, it you don’t get divorced, you can take care of them. That is one of the reasons. There are so many many reasons.

Cassie: I want to ask Claire your point of view because…umm oh, I want to, first of all, I want to express that your way to interact with audience is very good. Because more attention on your presentation. But…umm…it seems that your resources is kind of limited to some religion or countries so I want to ask you about…umm…what’s your…umm…opinion about the adultery in Taiwan because Taiwan in Taiwan, some of the adulteries seem to not relate to religion or adultery problems, just like umm…a person want to have other relationship.

Claire: I have…I have seen a news recently, umm…. A news that the commisioner of culture 文化部長龍應台 She has talked about, umm… when she talked to foreigners, umm…she felt embarrassed because…ah when they are talking about the laws of adultery. And I think decriminalizing adultery laws is a trend. Umm… in these developed countries because they focus on individual thinking. Umm…Maybe for their government, adultery just individual business. Yes.

Professor: You can cite the words at the beginning.

Claire: oh okay.

Professor: Like Cassie’s suggestion.