Paying surrogates, sperm and egg donors goes against Canadian values
In Canada, it’s illegal to pay for the services of a surrogate mother or to purchase human gametes — sperm and eggs. These prohibitions are entrenched in the Assisted Human Reproduction Act. Some Liberal members of Parliament want to change this.
By Alana Cattapan and Françoise BaylisThat's according to Alana Cattapan, an assistant professor with the Johnson Shoyama Graduate School of Public Policy at the University of Saskatchewan, who co-authored an article that was recently published in The Conversation.
Anthony Housefather, MP for Mount Royal and chair of the House of Commons Standing Committee on Justice and Human Rights, recently held a news conference to announce that he plans to introduce a private member’s bill to remove the legal prohibitions on payments.
Flanked by fertility doctors, lawyers, intended parents, surrogates and fertility agents, Housefather argued that Canadians should be able to pay — and be paid — for surrogacy, as well as human sperm and eggs.
But the planned private member’s bill is ill-conceived (pun intended) for several reasons.
At the outset, it’s important to remember there are sound ethical reasons to prohibit “trade in the reproductive capabilities of women and men and the exploitation of children, women and men for commercial ends,” as stated in the Assisted Human Reproduction Act.
Among these reasons are the need to avoid both the commodification of the human body and the twin risks of exploitation and coercion. That’s why the federal government introduced criminal prohibitions on payment for surrogacy as well as human sperm and eggs in 2004.
Alana Cattapan is an assistant professor with the Johnson Shoyama Graduate School of Public Policy at the University of Saskatchewan.