Wang came under fire from lawmakers for releasing a statement late Tuesday advocating the immediate abolition of the death penalty.

“People who died could not come back to life, so guaranteeing the right to life should not be a thing of the future, but should be advancing right now,” her statement said.

The Ministry of Justice has not executed a single person since December 2005, though there are at present 44 prisoners on death row. The minister said Japan and South Korea had each sentenced dozens of people to death, but not executed anyone for a decade.

The death penalty was the most dangerous sentence, because judges could make different interpretations based on the same evidence and end the life of a human, Wang said.

The minister said the existence of capital punishment could make people feel better, but in practice it was unable to deter criminals.

Wang told reporters she’d rather take the place of a death row prisoner than sign one execution during her term as minister. She also rejected accusations from lawmakers that not executing death row prisoners was illegal and unconstitutional. The Constitution guaranteed the right to life, she said.

The minister said lawmakers and the public would agree with her if she gave a clear explanation of her plans for long-term imprisonment to compensate for the abolition of the death penalty.

Her views were at odds with the stance of her deputy Huang Shih-ming, who is in the process of legislative review in the run-up to a vote on his appointment as state prosecutor-general. Responding to questions from lawmakers Monday, he said he was in favor of abolition but added that executions of prisoners already sentenced to death should continue unless legislation to the contrary was passed.

Huang said that if his appointment as state prosecutor-general was approved, he would pass death penalty cases on to the ministry for execution.

Ruling Kuomintang lawmaker Wu Yu-sheng said Wang should immediately resign and promote the abolition of death sentences as a private citizen, rather than in the capacity of a Cabinet minister.

Wang also drew fire from a member of the Control Yuan, the nation’s top government watchdog, former prosecutor Chao Chang-ping. He said that not going ahead with planned executions would damage public faith in the judiciary. If there were doubts about a verdict, the minister should file a special appeal or order the case reopened, but not put it aside and do nothing, Chao said.

Facing questions from lawmakers, national police chief Wang Cho-chiun said that as long as capital punishment was still the law, executions should go ahead.