Efforts are underway in Canada to reverse a 2004 law that allows only ‘altruistic’ sperm donation, egg donation, and surrogacy, and that carries criminal penalties for paying anything other than expense reimbursement.

Prime Minister Trudeau recently said the issue should be a matter of national conversation, and promised, “Of course we will need to listen to everyone’s perspectives, that we learn about their experiences and that we try to find the best solution for us as a society.”

Unfortunately, the way these kinds of conversations often run is that the women and children who are directly affected are not listened to closely, and indeed they are often effectively shouted down by those who want to build a family at virtually any cost.

Canadians would do well to heed professors Françoise Baylis and Alana Cattapan who write:

the planned private member’s bill is ill-conceived (pun intended) . . . The governance of assisted human reproduction is too important to the future of Canadian families to be undermined by a private member’s bill calling for an open market in human reproduction.

 

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Matthew Eppinette, Director of Programs