Technology bill could die again

Cloned baby rumours spark urgent debate

By ART BABYCH
Canadian Catholic News
Ottawa

Rumours are rampant on Parliament Hill that the government intends to prorogue Parliament in May or June and begin a new one in October with a Speech from the Throne to be delivered by Queen Elizabeth during her visit to Canada.

Canadian Alliance health critic Rob Merrifield and NDP health critic Judy Wasylycia-Leis say the time for debate on the controversial legislation to be introduced by May 10 may be too short to have a bill passed before parliament breaks.

"Scientists claimed to have already implanted cloned embryos in women." - Rob Merrifield

"Parliament must be heard on these life and death matters, and this time legislation must not be allowed to die on the order paper," Merrifield told the House of Commons. Wasylycia-Leis said the government lacks the political courage.

However, government house leader Ralph Goodale, says he expects the House to sit through the middle of June and that parliament will not likely prorogue until the fall. The House is scheduled to adjourn for the summer on June 21.

The government introduced Bill C-47, legislation that would have banned 13 of the technologies, in June of 1996, but it died on the order paper after Prime Minister Jean Chretien called a spring election in 1997.

Catholic Church organizations in Canada had urged the government to pass the legislation quickly in response to recommendations of the 1993 report of the Royal Commission on Reproductive Technologies, which took four years of study and cost $28 million.

The commission called for a ban on 13 new reproductive technologies including human cloning, sex selection clinics, surrogate motherhood and the sale of human eggs, sperm, embryos, fetuses or fetal tissue.

In May 2001, Health Minister Allan Rock unveiled new draft legislation and asked the Standing Committee on Health to conduct hearings and to submit a report by the end of January 2002.

The committee handed down its report last December that included a recommendation research be allowed on human embryos remaining after fertility treatments.

The Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops said it was disappointed, adding, "No amount of healing or good can justify the deliberate killing of a human being or using a human being as a means to an end."

Merrifield said it is "imperative" that legislation on cloning and research on human embryos be debated in the House as soon as possible.

"Early last week it was reported that the first cloned baby was on its way," he told the House. "Late last week, scientists linked to a group in Quebec claimed to have already implanted zcloned embryos in women. If they are experimenting here, there is no federal law to stop them."

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