OTTAWA, January 29, 2003 (LifeSiteNews.com) - According to the government’s proposed legislative agenda, the omnibus bill regarding reproductive technologies and research will receive final reading and a vote on Thursday, after yesterday’s commencement of debate. However, the bill which covers every thing from IVF to cloning, creating animal-human hybrids and payment for sperm donations, will take much longer to debate.
Mass confusion in the House of Commons was evident yesterday as opposition MP James Lunney testified to in the House. “Madam Speaker, it has been an interesting day so far but, my goodness, I have to protest the confusion related to these amendments. We started this morning with 107 proposed amendments. We were not allowed to see them until the very first thing this morning. Then the Speaker ruled a bunch of them out of order and so on. Then they were grouped and regrouped. Frankly, for members to debate intelligently on some of these amendments, it takes a bit of time to read and understand what is the intent of each amendment,” he said. Alliance MP Jason Kenney commented on the gravity of the legislation saying, “Bill C-13. This of course is a bill of great moral gravity which, if passed, will have tremendous implications for the legal status of human life as it is assaulted by new and emerging technologies and as we seek to harness those technologies to advance the dignity of human life in certain respects.”
Reed Elley, another Alliance MP noted, “I want to make a comment on today’s confusion in the House, which has led us to this point. I am sure that all members of the House realize that the legislation is probably one of the most important and ground-breaking pieces of legislation to come before the House in a number of years, because it is opening up huge new frontiers to us. It is important not only for us today but for the future of all Canadians who are not yet born. We need to get this right.” See the full Hansard debate: http://www.parl.gc.ca/37/2/parlbus/chambus/house/debates/047_2003-01-28/HAN047-E.htm