Wednesday, Aug. 27, 2003 - UPDATED AT 2:07 AM EDT

Ottawa fears revolt on embryo legislation

By BRIAN LAGHI
From Wednesday's Globe and Mail

Ottawa — Senior government officials are growing increasingly fearful of a back-bench uprising that threatens to
scuttle a long-awaited bill regulating the controversial use of human embryos for medical research.

Sources said yesterday the government is looking to shore up support for the bill, which is under fire from both
opposition forces and Liberal backbenchers. A senior source also said Prime Minister Jean Chrétien is considering the
possibility of a free vote on the matter as internal opposition to the bill increases and it becomes more difficult to
control recalcitrant caucus members.

"It's under consideration," the source said.

The many-faceted bill would regulate fertility clinics and make human cloning and commercial surrogacy illegal. It
would allow stem-cell research using human embryos, an issue that has concerned a number of back-bench Liberal MPs.
Defeating the bill would leave the country with no regulations in the deeply controversial area, although the
scientific community has developed some of its own guidelines.

Government House Leader Don Boudria told The Globe and Mail that there are no plans for a free vote, and that he is
confident the bill will pass.

He said support for the bill is growing among those who see a need for some regulation. He noted that the bill passed a
recent vote in the Commons by about 10 votes and it was at that point in the process — known as the report stage — that
MPs should have killed it if they wished to do so. A final vote is expected this fall.

Paul Szabo, a key MP spearheading opposition to the bill, said yesterday he believes that concerned back-bench
Liberals, in concert with the votes of other parties, could kill the bill when it comes to a vote.

Many MPs are upset with the portion of the bill that would allow the government to fund researchers using embryos left
over from fertility clinics and aborted fetuses for stem-cell research. Many scientists consider human embryos the best
source of stem cells, a promising component of regenerative medicine that may one day provide treatments for conditions
like Parkinson's disease. The Canadian Institutes of Health Research is already setting up the machinery to begin
doling out government funding to researchers.

Mr. Szabo said government officials are working to convince him and his colleagues to support the bill.

He said, for example, that Health Minister Anne McLellan has told him she is willing to consider making amendments to
the legislation, particularly if it means giving concerned MPs assurances about the prohibition on cloning.

"I think it was a little bit of an olive branch," said Mr. Szabo, who nonetheless is against the bill.

MP Pat O'Brien said he was approached by a senior elected Liberal in June and asked to reconsider his opposition to the
bill. He said yesterday that he too will vote against it.

A spokesman for Ms. McLellan said the minister is confident the bill will pass, but will consider amendments if those
remove concern in areas such as cloning. Some MPs, like Mr. Szabo, believe the prohibition is not stringent enough.

"If it's possible to draft language that we can incorporate, we will see if we can add that, and if it can be amended
to add greater certainty," Alex Swann, the spokesman, said.

But spokesmen for other parties say they too have difficulties with the bill.

Canadian Alliance health critic Rob Merrifield said his party wants a three-year moratorium on the use of embryos for
research.

Mr. Merrifield argued that allowing the destruction of embryos for research could set a precedent for euthanasia.

The Bloc Québécois says it supports provisions in the bill to outlaw about a dozen practices, including cloning, but
that the creation of a federal regulatory body to oversee the system intrudes on Quebec's jurisdiction.

The party's health critic, Réal Ménard, said the government could pass key elements of the bill, including a ban on
cloning, if only it would accept the Bloc's proposal to split the bill in two.

"The government has just been waiting, because it's not at all obvious that this bill will pass."

For its part, the NDP wants the government to guarantee 50-per-cent female membership of the regulatory body, among
other changes.

Liberal backbencher Joe Volpe, who has yet to decide how to vote, said the bill has created difficulty for many
members, who support some portions and not others. Mr. Volpe also said he sees no prohibition in the bill against
selling an aborted fetus for its stem cells.

With reports from Drew Fagan and Campbell Clark

SOURCE: The The Globe and Mail, Canada
http://tinyurl.com/lbvs

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