Mr. Speaker, as all members in the House have acknowledged, the federal government has been concerned with the issues of cloning and germline genetic manipulation for some time.
In 1993 the report of the royal commission on new productive and genetic technologies recommended banning these practices and bringing forward a regulatory environment. The government followed up immediately with a call for a moratorium on these and other practices in 1995. That moratorium is in place and exists today.
As a result of Bill C-47, the government understands the concerns that Canadians have about the variety of egregious technology, those things that we are worried about, not just cloning and germline genetic manipulation.
We acknowledge the widespread desire for a comprehensive regime to govern the unacceptable and regulate the acceptable technologies.
The committee discussed Bill C-247.
There is general agreement in principle that human cloning should be banned. That was originally in the government Bill C-47 and recommended by the commission that was established. There are many days in this place where I think all members would like to have a clone of themselves so we could be in two places at the same time. That is a joke. We know that the idea of having a complete replica of any human being, not just in this place but anywhere, is not only scary but it is the kind of serious ethical dilemma that we are all very clear on.
I want to be very clear that we do not support the ability to clone humans. We support a ban on human cloning. At the same time, in speaking to this amendment before us today, we recognize that this is a very complex issue. What is proposed in this bill is a Criminal Code prohibition. What we believe is required and what this amendment points out is that we need not only prohibitions but a regulatory regime.
What concerns me is the amendment that has been placed today by the member for Drummond because it points out that we have concerns, as I believe she has, with the original wording of the bill. We do not want to, for example, stop research on those technologies that I referred to as acceptable, the kind of technologies that would lead to a perfect match for bone marrow to cure leukaemia or a perfect match of a valve to fix a heart or the perfect match of an organ.
I therefore say to the member and to all members that the fact that this amendment has been placed at this time in the House is of great concern to me. We have to think very carefully before we try to frame complex legislation by amendment in this House of Commons.
I have received communications from experts in this field following the discussion at committee. Dr. Arthur Leader, professor of obstetrics, gynecology and medicine, the chief of the division of reproductive medicine at the University of Ottawa, and president of the Canadian Fertility and Andrology Society, would like to appear before the committee to express his concerns and reservations.
In speaking to this amendment I believe we cannot support this amendment at this time without having further discussion and debate of the implications that it would have on this very important topic.