News

OTTAWA, March 19, 2003 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The votes on the pro-life amendments (group 2) to the Assisted Human Reproduction Act Bill C-13 did not take place today as expected.  Yesterday, during debate on the group 2 amendments, Canadian Alliance MP Jason Kenney rose to argue for his Motion 17 which he said “would have the effect of prohibiting destructive research on human embryos.”

Kenney pointed out that “If the bill were to pass unamended, the signal would go out to companies and laboratories that it is now open season on embryos and for the first time taxpayers’ dollars would go toward funding this destructive research.”  He explained, “What embryonic stem cell research means, even on spare embryos, is that we take an embryo that has been created as part of an attempt by a couple to conceive a child and decide that this embryo, this tiny male or female human being with a unique genetic identity of its own, is not worthy of life or even of a decent, dignified death, but that it is merely raw material for genetic research, for commodification.”

  He continued: “We take other embryos, the brothers or sisters of the one we are researching on, and implant them into the womb of a mother with the hope that they will become children. However, the embryo that is left over we do not treat as human, but as a mere object worthy of nothing but disposal.”  Kenney reminded his colleagues, “Every single one of the 301 members of the House was once an embryo, no bigger than the head of a pin.”

See Kenney’s speech from the Hansard:  https://www.parl.gc.ca/37/2/parlbus/chambus/house/debates/072_2003-03-18/HAN072-E.htm#Int-454546