From: Michael Roy Ames (michaelroyames@yahoo.com)
Date: Sun Apr 06 2003 - 19:38:36 MDT
Reason (and WTA),
The analog is identical. If Canadians want thier voices to be heard,
they can contact thier Member of Parilment. They can do this by regular
mail, email or telephone. The contact information can be found online
(in English) at:
http://canada.gc.ca/directories/direct_e.html
More attention is paid to constituents that provide thier contact
information - that is home address & telephone number. The rational for
this is to avoid multiply counting the opinion of a constituent who
repeatedly contacts an MP about a single topic. There are no rules
preventing someone contacting MPs from other constituencies, but the MP
aren't required to pay attention. Most do, however, so contacting
multiple MPs can pay off.
I have worked inside the Canadian Government in enough places to know
that the vast majoity of MPs pay close attention to verified contacts by
constituents. They don't pay much attention to protestors on the
street.
Canadians! Please go and lobby for what you believe in - hopefully an
extropian decision - it is neither expensive, nor time consuming to do
so. It is, however, effective.
Michael Roy Ames
Reason wrote:
> 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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