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CANADIAN STEM CELL BILL WOULD ALLOW FOR IMPLANTATION AND HARVESTING OF HUMAN CLONES

OTTAWA, April 8, 2003 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Liberal MP Paul Szabo, believed to be the foremost expert in the House of Commons on stem cell research, has brought to light new and very disturbing information about Bill C-13, An Act Respecting Assisted Human Reproductive Technologies and Related Research.

Wording in cloning and stem cell bills from the legislatures of New York, New Jersey, Maryland, and Texas, have been crafted to allow the artificial manufacture of cloned human beings to be implanted into a uterus at the embryonic stage and harvested for research and killed at any time from the embryonic period through the ninth month of gestation.

Dr. Dianne Irving, PhD, Bioethicist, former NIH bench biochemist and PhD Philosopher, warned pro-lifers in Canada to be on the lookout for similar wording in the Canadian legislation. However, Bill C-13 never overtly indicated such definitions.

However, Mr. Szabo pointed out in his speech on the legislation in the House of Commons yesterday that the allowance for such procedures is in Bill C-13, since the bill relies on the definition of "human being" from 'case law' which refers to the Criminal Code definition.

The prohibitions in the legislation include, in many cases, the condition that an activity is only prohibited "for the purpose of creating a human being". In contradiction to obvious scientific fact and reason, the law in Canada says a "human being" does not exist until birth. An embryo, foetus, or baby is not considered a "human being" until it emerges completely from the Womb.

Given the definition of "human being", several prohibitions in the legislation which are conditional on the phrase, "for the purpose of creating a human being," would be negated if the intention of the researcher is to kill the child before birth.

As Paul Szabo pointed out to his colleagues in the House yesterday, bill C-13 "would allow cloned human embryos to be implanted in the uterus at the embryonic stage and then be harvested for research at any time from the embryonic period through the ninth month of gestation - anytime during the pregnancy of a woman. Not only could researchers get stem cells from that unborn child, they could also harvest organs from that unborn child."

See Szabo's full address in the House at:
http://www.parl.gc.ca/37/2/parlbus/chambus/house/debates/085_2003-04-07/HAN085-E...

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