Canadian Legislation Proposed
URL: http://www.progress.org.uk/news/BioNewsCurrent.html
Date accessed: 10 May 2001
Canadian Health Minister, Allan Rock, has presented draft legislation on assisted reproduction to the Canadian Government's Standing Committee on Health. The legislation would be the first of its kind in Canada and would ban human cloning and other 'unacceptable practices' whilst regulating assisted reproduction treatment provision and research. The committee members have been asked to provide a report on the proposed legislation by the end of January next year. It is thought that they will immediately call for a public consultation.
Rock stated that the draft legislation has two aims. Firstly, the Canadian Government wants to ensure health and safety standards for those using assisted reproduction technologies. Secondly, it wants to ensure that promising research in the area is encouraged whilst being properly regulated. Rock has also asked the Committee for its views about a regulatory body that would implement and oversee the legislation.
The draft legislation proposes to ban, among other things, human reproductive cloning, the sale and purchase of human embryos, sex-selection for non-medical reasons, creating embryos specifically for research and payment for surrogates. In vitro fertilisation (IVF) and donor insemination are among the practises to be regulated, and it is proposed that licenses will have to be obtained for certain types of research. The legislation also proposes to establish information registers for the collection of information about gamete donors, and on the outcomes of some regulated activities. Children born from donated gametes will be able to access the registers to learn about the medical history of - but not receive identifying information about - their donor 'parents'.Category: 33. Cloning