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MONTREAL, October 3, 2005 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A lesbian woman from Quebec has won a human rights suit she filed after being denied in-vitro fertilization allegedly because of her sexual orientation, forcing the hospitalÂclinic to pay her $19,000.

Helen Zylberszac charged that the McGill reproductive centre in Montreal’s Royal Victoria Hospital allegedly denied her IVF treatment in 2002 because she was not accompanied by a male partner. “One of the doctors said if I had of shown up with a man, they would have treated me,” she told CTV News.

The Quebec Human Rights Commission decreed that the hospital pay her $10,000 in moral damages and $9,000 in physical damages. The ruling may be appealed into the regular court system.

  Policy in some fertility clinics reflects that of adoption agencies, namely that in the best interests of the child, children should be provided with a father and a mother. However, Canada has officially made such determinations illegal in the case of IVF.

Federal law enacted in 2004, Bill C-13, states: “Persons who seek to undergo assisted reproduction procedures must not be discriminated against, including on the basis of their sexual orientation or marital status.”

See related LifeSiteNews.com stories:
Canadian Reproductive Technologies Bill Passes Tuesday Evening 149-109
https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2003/oct/03102801.html

Canadian Bill on Stem Cell Research Completely Flawed Says Top Expert
https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2002/dec/021217a.html

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