Source The Globe And Mail
Alison Motluk is a Toronto freelance journalistwith a special interest in assisted reproduction.
Recently, the Prime Minister suggested it might be time to revisit our law on assisted reproduction. He was responding to the news that Liberal MP Anthony Housefather planned to introduce a private member’s bill amending parts of the law that made it a criminal offence to pay people to act as surrogates, egg donors or sperm donors.
They are right that the Assisted Human Reproduction Act, which received royal assent in 2004, is a bit outdated. Much of it comes from a time before it was common for gay couples to have children, for lesbians to use anonymous sperm donors or for single women or men to create families on their own. The idea that paying for someone’s willing help in this could send a parent to prison doesn’t feel right.