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Canoe News, Canada Thu, March 27, 2003 Critics fear legislation could lead to 'rent-a- womb'contracts By DENNIS BUECKERT OTTAWA (CP) - In what critics call a major reversal of government policy, women could receive payment for bearing a baby under the latest version of a bill on assisted reproduction. Several members of the Commons health committee said Thursday they fear the amendment, passed late Wednesday amid chaotic voting on scores of other revisions, could open the door to commercial "rent-a- womb" contracts. But the government, which supports the amendment, says compensation would be allowed only in narrow circumstances. Although rent-a-womb contracts are common in the United States, there is strong opposition to them in Canada on the grounds that they commodify human life. As originally drafted, the bill would have prohibited all payment to surrogates except for receipted medical expenses. An amendment introduced Wednesday evening by Liberal MP Hedy Fry would allow a surrogate mother to be compensated for "lost employment income" if she is unable to continue working for health reasons. "It commodifies the womb," said Liberal MP Paul Szabo, a member of the Commons health committee, in an interview. "There's a lot of people quite upset about it. "This right out of the blue just totally goes against one of the fundamental principles that have been underpinning this bill right from the beginning." New Democrat MP Judy Wasylicia-Leis, also voted against the amendment. "It does, in our view, open the door to paid surrogacy." Canadian Alliance MP Rob Merrifield said the amendment contradicts the recommendations of the health committee which spent many weeks studying the legislation. "The committee was absolutely against any kind of payment for surrogacy because (it would lead to) commodification of this whole area." Alex Swann, a Health Canada spokesman, said the concerns are misplaced. He said the amendment is tightly worded, requiring a woman to obtain a doctor's certificate to qualify for the compensation. "The prohibition on paid surrogacy in the bill remains," said Swann. "In fact, (the amendment) speaks to very limited circumstances." But Szabo said the amendment created a major loophole. "The risk, now is how are we going to police anything? It's opened up a Pandora's box. People will say, 'Well, if you can do that, you can do these other things too."' Szabo believes there would be support in the Senate to have the amendment reversed. The bill, which been in the works for more than 10 years, is expected to go to third reading as early as next week. It would also ban human cloning, require fertility clinics to provide full counselling to clients and set regulations for stem cell research. SOURCE: Canoe News, Canada http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Canada/2003/03/27/52499-cp.html * * * Murray Charters <[log in to unmask]> http://www.geocities.com/murraycharters/ http://www.TherapeuticCloning.ca/ ---------------------------------------------------------------------- To sign-off Parkinsn send a message to: mailto:[log in to unmask] In the body of the message put: signoff parkinsn