May 4, 2001

Health Minister Allan Rock has asked the House of Commons Standing Committee on Health to undertake a review of draft legislation that would regulate assisted human reproduction and related research, as well as ban ethically unacceptable practices such as cloning, commercially surrogacy and so-called "designer babies."

Rapid technological advances in the field of assisted human reproduction and related research have offered new hope to Canadians who want to raise families and those who have been seriously injured or who are afflicted by diseases like Alzheimer’s.

But they have also raised profound concerns about how to balance scientific progress with public safety and deeply held moral and ethical beliefs about the dignity of human life.

The draft legislation is an attempt to strike an appropriate balance -- one that ensures that Canadians using such techniques can do so without compromising their health and safety; and, that promising research related to assisted human reproduction takes place within a regulated environment.

There is currently no comprehensive federal or provincial legislation governing human reproductive technologies and related research. The proposed approach will put Canada ahead of some countries and in line with measures taken in other major industrialized countries.

It is because of the broad scope of the ethical, scientific and personal issues covered by the draft legislation that the Minister wanted to give Members of Parliament the earliest opportunity to reflect on it and lead a dialogue with Canadians.

He has asked the Committee to report back by the end of January 2002.

Highlights of the Draft Legislation

The draft legislation would ban certain activities, for example:

• The cloning of human beings;
• The sale and purchase of human embryos;
• Paying women to act as surrogate mothers;
• Sex selection for babies;
• Germ-line genetic alteration (changing the genetic code such that the modification is passed on to descendants, which could be used to create so-called "designer babies.")
• Creation of embryos solely for research purposes; and,
• Transplanting reproductive material from animals into humans

Violation of prohibitions would constitute a criminal offence and be subject to fines and/or imprisonment.

Other activities would be allowed but would be strictly regulated. Regulations would cover, for example:

• The safety of reproductive materials (such as sperm); and,
• The licensing of certain types of research. (The draft legislation is consistent with the proposals of the Canadian Institutes for Health Research on funding stem cell research.)

A core principle of the draft legislation is free and informed consent. Any procedure to assist human reproduction, as well as some research practices, would require the written consent of the donors.

Under the proposed legislation, information registries would be established to, for example, collect information about sperm and egg donors as well as data on the outcomes of various regulated activities.

Children born of donated sperm and eggs could, at some point, consult the registry to learn about the medical histories of their donors.