OTTAWA, February 5, 2003 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Campaign Life Coalition (CLC), Life Canada, the Archdiocese of Vancouver, the Catholic Civil Rights League and Campaign Life Catholic have all come out in support of one key group of amendments to the Assisted Reproductive legislation, Bill C-13. The amendments, grouped into what is known as group #2, are likely to receive debate within a week. CLC has for some months taken a very active part in the amendments process and is encouraging Members of Parliament to support the group 2 amendments. It has however also warned MPs that the bill is fatally flawed and cannot be supported on final vote. Life Canada, the new umbrella group for educational pro-life groups in Canada, released a statement on the bill noting that the group 2 amendments should be supported and highlighted amendments 13 (which would ban all cloning) and 17 (which, in principle, calls for a ban on destructive research on human embryos). However, Life Canada too says in their release that it “opposes this legislation as it currently stands.” Bishop Adam Exner of Vancouver issued a release noting that Catholic legislators must vote against the legislation since “Bill C-13 is certainly intrinsically unjust legislation, violating human rights and dignity in numerous ways and gravely so.” The Catholic Civil Rights League has urged its members to “Write your Member of Parliament to voice your disapproval that bill C-13 would allow human embryos to be killed for research purposes.”
See related coverage: CANADIAN ARCHBISHOP SAYS CATHOLIC POLITICIANS CANNOT SUPPORT STEM CELL BILL C-13 http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2003/jan/03013001.html FR. RICHARD JOHN NEUHAUS COMMENTS ON CANADIAN STEM CELL LEGISLATION http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2003/jan/03013101.html See LifeSite’s updated Stem Cell page which now includes many links to the recent House of Commons speeches by individual MPs. Also see link to the amendment groups that are to be voted on. http://www.lifesite.net/features/stemcellembryo/index.html