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Regulation of Reproduction Technologies in Canada
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Dateline: 05/08/01

Canadian Health Minister Allan Rock has asked the House of Commons Standing Committee on Health to study draft legislation on reproductive technologies and report by January 2002. There is currently no comprehensive federal or provincial legislation governing human reproductive technologies and related research in Canada.

The legislation has two purposes. The first is to ensure that the health and safety of those using new technologies to conceive a child are protected. The second is to make sure that research into new reproductive technologies is performed in a controlled and regulated environment.

The issues raised by legislation in this area are complex and emotional, not just scientific and technical, and also have legal, social, moral and ethical implications.

The House of Commons committee has been asked to look at the technologies and activities that will be banned in Canada, at other techniques that will be regulated and will require licensing, and also at what type of regulating body should be created to oversee the implementation of the legislation.

Activities to be Banned

The draft legislation would ban:

  • cloning human beings
  • germ-line genetic alteration (changing genetic code so that the modification is passed on to descendants)
  • development of an embryo outside a woman’s body beyond 14 days
  • creation of embryos solely for research purposes
  • creating an embryo from another embryo or fetus
  • transplanting reproductive material from animals into humans
  • use of human reproductive material previously transplanted into an animal
  • gender preference (action taken to increase the probability of a particular sex)
  • sale and purchase of human embryos
  • purchase, barter or exchange of human sperm or eggs
  • commercial surrogacy arrangements

Criminal penalties on banned activities could include up to 10 years in prison and fines up to $500,000.

Activities to be Regulated

Activities that would be regulated under the draft legislation include:

  • how human sperm, eggs or embryos are handled and stored
  • the information needs of people using assisted human reproduction, including the establishment of registries to collect information on sperm, egg and embryo donations, so that children from donated sperm and eggs would be able to consult the registries for medical histories
  • informed consent
  • counseling requirements for those using assisted human reproduction technologies
  • safety of laboratories, sperm banks and fertility clinics
  • safety of reproductive treatments such as in vitro fertilization (IVF) and donor insemination (DI)
  • licensing of certain types of research

Criminal penalties for regulatory violations could include up to five years in prison and fines up to $250,000.

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