Important changes made today to Canadian biolegislation: It will now be up to individual provinces to draw up a new legislative scheme to regulate fertility treatments and embryonic research after the supreme court declared it a provincial, not a federal, responsibility. It will now be up to provinces to control the licensing of doctors and clinics and to regulate how they deal with donors and would-be parents, or with eggs, sperms or embryos for research purposes, including developing new genetic therapies for disease.
This is good news and will prove to be beneficial for fertility clinics and research specialists. Individual provinces will be able to focus on and promote more focused and specific lines of research. It will also reduce the need for Canadians to go about the "medical tourist" route.
That said, certain federal criminal bans still stand: It is still illegal to pay for surrogacy, and the federal government may limit reimbursements to donors and surrogates for expenses only, although the federal government has never defined an allowable expense. Ottawa may still legislate mandatory written consent of donors; a ban on extracting eggs or sperm from persons under 18 except to preserve their fertility; and a prohibition on human-animal hybrids.
Still, it's progress.
1 comment:
What do you think of the reverse happening with regard to aquaculture (source: http://www.cbc.ca/canada/british-columbia/story/2010/12/10/bc-fish-farming-regulation-dfo.html)
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