From: Reason (reason@exratio.com)
Date: Sun Apr 06 2003 - 17:21:26 MDT
Quite aside from the reproductive cloning, looks like they're on their way
to banning theraputic cloning just as hard as the US house wants to
(something I've been predicting):
http://www.wcr.ab.ca/news/2003/0407/government040703.shtml
Question for the Canadians on the list: do you have a way of contacting your
representatives analagous to www.congress.org for the US? If so, where is
it?
Reason
http://www.exratio.com/
> -----Original Message-----
> From: George Dvorsky [mailto:sentdev@hotmail.com]
> Sent: Sunday, April 06, 2003 2:20 PM
> To: extropians@extropy.org; tta-announce@yahoogroups.com;
> tta-talk@yahoogroups.com; wta-talk@yahoogroups.com
> Subject: [wta-talk] TTA Press Release on Bill C-13 (Canada)
>
>
> Parental Choice, Research Impinged by Bill C-13
>
> Members of parliament must amend Bill C-13 so that it doesn't
> unjustifiably
> remove valid reproductive options for Canadians or inhibit
> important medical
> research
>
> Proposed Bill C-13 is slated for debate in the House of Commons
> this week,
> and many Canadians are concerned that it will be voted into law.
>
> The bill, titled “An Act respecting assisted human reproductive
> technologies
> and related research,” calls for bans on therapeutic and reproductive
> cloning, germ-line modifications, gender selection of offspring, the
> creation of chimeras and animal-human hybrids for reproduction,
> commercial
> surrogate mothers and the sale of human reproductive materials or embryos.
>
> Already the target of much criticism, the bill’s potential
> prohibitions have
> infuriated many individuals and groups, including infertile couples and
> those people, such as Parkinson’s victims, who stand a good chance of
> reaping the benefits of research into therapeutic cloning.
>
> Under the act, Canadians would be forbidden to pay for sperm, eggs or
> surrogacy. Health Minister Anne McLellan maintains that these types of
> reproductive contributions should be limited to acts of altruism.
>
> "How many friends do most of us have who would, out of the
> goodness of their
> heart, go through two weeks of injections, nine months of pregnancy and
> childbirth so that we could have a child?" asks Simon Smith,
> president of
> the Toronto Transhumanist Association. "In their reactionary attempt to
> prevent the commodification of human reproduction, the Liberals
> are ignoring
> the realities that Canadian couples face. People without extraordinarily
> altruistic friends will be doomed to a childless future."
>
> Bill C-13 isn't just unfair to the one in six Canadians who suffer from
> infertility, says Smith, but also to people suffering from such health
> conditions as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and paralysis.
> "Therapeutic cloning
> has the potential to produce stem cells that could treat or even
> cure many
> currently incurable conditions," says Smith. "If Bill C-13
> passes, research
> on therapeutic cloning won't stop, it will just move to more amenable
> countries. In essence, Canada will be waving goodbye to a
> significant part
> of its biotech future."
>
> George Dvorsky, Vice President of the Toronto Transhumanist
> Association, is
> concerned that under Bill C-13 Canadians will be denied what he
> considers to
> be ethical and viable reproductive options. He is an advocate of
> commercial
> surrogacy and gender selection, and believes that consenting adults in a
> free society should be entitled to use these types of life-giving
> services.
> "People should be wary of any attempt by the Canadian government
> to control
> the reproductive processes of their bodies," he says. "Canadians couples
> should be allowed to select something as basic as the gender of their own
> offspring. People already try to select the gender of their
> children using
> all sorts of primitive and ineffective means. Why should new
> means be made
> illegal simply because they're more effective?"
>
> Dvorsky also worries that by making commercial surrogacy illegal, couples
> will seek such services in the United States, or enter into shady and
> unmonitored underground activities.
>
> “The proposed act claims to ‘respect’ assisted reproductive
> technologies and
> research, and instead fails to ‘respect’ those Canadians who could really
> use those technologies and services,” says Dvorsky. “This is
> another example
> of the government prying their way into the bedrooms of the nation and
> telling us which procreative options are appropriate for us and which are
> not.“
> About the Toronto Transhumanist Association
> The Toronto Transhumanist Association (TTA) is a chapter of the World
> Transhumanist Association, a global organization founded in 1997
> to support
> discussion, research and public awareness of Transhumanist
> thinking. There
> are currently more than 50 formed or forming chapters of the World
> Transhumanist Association around the world.
>
> Transhumanism is concerned with ethically expanding technological
> opportunities for all people to live longer and healthier lives,
> to enhance
> their intellectual, physical and emotional capacities, and to
> enjoy a future
> of freedom and prosperity.
> Website
>
> If you’re interested in learning more, please visit our Website at
> http://toronto.transhumanism.com or email george@betterhumans.com.
> Contacts
>
> Simon Smith: simon@betterhumans.com
>
> George Dvorsky: george@betterhumans.com
>
>
>
>
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