Federal Initiatives and Constitutional Jurisdiction

• Author: Maureen A. McTeer
• Pages: 24-30

Chapter

Three

Federal

Initiatives

and

Constitutional

Jurisdiction

nen thousands of Canadians banded together to call for the

creation

of a

royal commission

on

reproductive

and

genetic

technologies,

few

realized

the

speed

with which these

issues

would

develop

and

dominate medical-scientific

research.1

In its

1993

report,

the

Royal

Commission

on New

Reproductive Technologies

recommended that

a

permanent authority

be

appointed

to

oversee

the

use and

development

of

assisted reproductive

and

genetic technologies

and

practices,2

and

proposed that certain

of

them

be

criminalized.3

Since

then,

the

federal government

has

introduced

two

measures

— a

volun-

tary

moratorium

on

certain reproductive

and

genetic practices,

in

July

1995;

and a

Bill

that would have criminalized them.

The

voluntary mor-

atorium

is

still

in

place,

but

there

is no law yet to

regulate

and

accredit

fertility

clinics

or

deal with controversial embryo research.

Among

the

many technologies

and

research areas that

are

subject

to the

voluntary moratorium

are sex

selection

for

non-medical pur-

poses; commercial preconception

or

"surrogacy" arrangements;

the

buying

and

selling

of

human eggs, sperm,

and

embryos;

egg

donation

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