Embryo research: what is at stake? (News in Brief: Canada).

Ottawa--The Government of Canada's proposed legislation governing assisted human reproduction must be opposed for the following reasons:

The Act allows a person, under the authority of a licence issued by the Minister of Health, to perform the following "controlled" activities:

* To use human reproductive material for the purpose of research, or the prevention, diagnosis, or treatment of disease or disability, or for the creation of an embryo, or to facilitate human reproduction. Human reproductive material includes: sperm, ovum, or other human cells, human gene, or an in-vitro embryo, and includes any part of them. An embryo can be created from an invitro embryo by separating a stem cell (blastomere) from an early embryo. This stem cell can sometimes change and become a zygote, a new human being, and an identical twin of the embryo from which it came.

* To use an in-vitro embryo for the purpose of research.

* To create a chimera (a human embryo into which a non-human cell has been introduced, or a non-human embryo into which a human cell has been introduced) for any purpose, including research.

The Act allows the use of stem cells obtained from a human in vitro embryo for the purpose of research. Retrieval of these cells kills the embryo. It is a scientific fact, established over a century ago, and attested to in the current scientific literature, that a human being comes into existence at fertilization. The one-cell embryo created at that time is already an innocent member of the human species, who has a fundamental inherent right as such to be cared for and not harmed or killed for any reason whatsoever.

The killing of a human embryo is therefore an unjustifiable homicide, and is as morally reprehensible as murder. The licensing, control, or regulation of human embryo research makes no more moral sense than the licensing, control, or regulation of murder (see Editorial and Brosso letter, p.3 and p.5).