It has triggered a boom in risky multiple births, created a generation of children with anonymous sperm-donor parents and spawned an underground trade in semen, eggs and surrogates.
Canada's thriving fertility industry, however, will soon be left with virtually no official oversight, after the government indicated in Thursday's budget there is no point keeping Assisted Human Reproduction Canada open after a 2010 Supreme Court of Canada decision struck down much of the law it was supposed to enforce.
"I think the whole debacle is shocking," said Françoise Baylis, a Dalhousie University bio-ethicist and former member of the agency's board.
"When you have a piece of legislation, you can choose to make it work or not, and I don't see there having been any leadership," she said. "There has been close to 30 years invested in terms of effort, energy and money (on the issue) and it's all for naught."
The problem is not just provincial inaction, she noted. Health Canada has yet to write crucial regulations under parts of the Assisted Human Reproduction Act the court left intact - eight years after the legislation came into force.
Original Article
Source: ottawa citizen
Author: Tom Blackwell
