The Federal Royal Commission on New Reproductive Technologies

• Author: Maureen McTeer
• Pages: 25-32

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– chapter three –

The Federal Royal Commission on

New Reproductive Technologies

CANADA: THE FEDERAL ROYAL COMMISSION ON

NEW REPRODUCTIVE TECHNOLOGIES

Canada came late to the study and regulation of assisted reproductive

technologies and practices. In , the federal government was lobbied

by a group of Canadians from all walks of life urging the creation of a

royal commission to study the use and development of new reproductive

technologies and their health impacts, especially on women’s health and

bodies. is group called themselves the Canadian Coalition for a Royal

Commission on New Reproductive Technologies.

Letters were written to Prime Minister Mulroney, urging him to name

a royal commission as a key social policy initiative in the government’s

upcoming Speech from the rone in early . e group developed

the wording of a mandate for the commission that it proposed as well as a

list of some forty Canadians — prominent in several elds — from which

commissioners could be chosen. While the government did announce

the creation of a Royal Commission on New Reproductive Technologies,

none of the Canadians on the list provided by the coalition to the gov-

ernment were named as commissioners or as its chair.