By Hilary White
OTTAWA, November 2, 2005 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A new study has shown that of the 24 fertility clinics that practice in vitro fertilization, only one can be shown to be in compliance with the recently passed federal law on reproductive technologies. Halifax’s Dalhousie University published the study in the Canadian Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology and said that the IVF facilities are in violation of federal ethics guidelines chiefly surrounding the frozen storage of embryos.
Ethics professor Margaret Somerville of McGill University said that the study “should sound a serious warning for everyone connected with research.”
The study examined written consent forms for the cryopreservation of embryos that were “spare” after implantation of their siblings. Dalhousie bioethicist Francoise Bayliss, who gave extensive testimony on the legislation, said that there was “absolutely no consistency” between clinics in the storage of embryos and consent.
Only 14 of Canada’s 24 clinics consented to be studied and of those only one was in accordance with the law.
Somerville said this “Should sound a serious warning for everyone connected with research, not least because what is involved is not simply a matter of breaches of laws and ethical requirements in individual cases, but also a breach of public trust.”
Apart from the overarching objections to the IVF procedure, pro-life spokesmen during the debates on the legislation pointed out numerous times that any guidelines that may be put in place in the law would be next to impossible to enforce.