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Canadian Senate Committee Approves Cloning Bill http://www.chinaview.cn 2004-03-04 13:09:33 OTTAWA, March 3 (Xinhuanet) -- The social affairs committee of Canada's Senate on Wednesday passed a bill that will ban human cloning and regulate the use of embryonic stem cells. The motion, which was approved without amendments, will also ban the sale of human sperm and eggs and the practice of paying a surrogate to carry a pregnancy. As well, it suggests creating a national agency to oversee the activities of fertility clinics and ensuring enforcement of the legislation. Under the bill, researchers will be allowed to work with surplus embryos created in the course of infertility treatments, but not to clone embryos for research purposes. Additionally, egg and sperm donors as well as surrogates will no longer be able to receive compensation, except for those directcosts that can be proven with a receipt, such as drug costs and travel expenses. Canadian Health Minister Pierre Pettigrew says the legislation "fills a legislative void" and puts Canada in line with measures taken in other major industrialized countries. The bill had been presented numerous times over the last 10 years in different forms, and often died on the order paper. SOURCE: China View http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2004-03/04/content_1344982.htm * * * ---------------------------------------------------------------------- To sign-off Parkinsn send a message to: mailto:[log in to unmask] In the body of the message put: signoff parkinsn