Mr. Speaker, last week President Bush denounced all forms of human cloning. “Life is a creation, not a commodity”, he said. Sadly, science fiction is quickly becoming science fact.
Early last week it was reported that the first cloned baby was on its way. Late last week scientists linked to a group in Quebec claimed to have already implanted cloned embryos in women. If they are experimenting here, there is no federal law to stop them.
On Friday we asked the government to assure us that cloning experiments were not taking place in Canada. We received no such assurance. It is imperative that legislation on cloning and research on human embryos be debated in the House as soon as possible. There are groups out there intent on cloning humans, and the CIHR has pre-empted parliament by saying that research on embryos can go ahead.
Parliament must be heard on these life and death matters, and this time legislation must not be allowed to die on the order paper.