Year: 2007
Type: article
Abstract: This article examines the current legal regime applicable to animal-human combinations under the Assisted\nHuman Reproduction Act (Canada). The Act prohibits as criminal offences the use of non-human reproductive material\nin humans, the use in humans of human reproductive material previously transplanted into a non-human life form, the\ncreation of chimeras made from human embryos, and the creation for reproductive purposes of human/non-human\nhybrids. Additional animal-human combinations, such as transgenic life forms, may be regulated pursuant to section 11\nof the Act in the future.\nThe underlying concerns of the Act in establishing this regime appear to be the protection of human health and\nsafety, human dignity and individuality, and the human genome. The Act seems calibrated to prohibit the creation of\nanimal-human combinations that are currently unsafe and scientifically and ethically problematic, while leaving open\nthe possibility of regulating other such combinations with more immediate scientific potential, although these also raise\nethical questions.\nCurrently, certain differences subsist in Canada between what is permissible for researchers and institutions\nfunded by federal agencies and those in privately funded research. The development of the regulatory framework under\nthe Act will reveal how freedom of research will be balanced against the need for scientifically valid and ethically\njustifiable research, and whether these differences will continue to apply.
Authors: Sylvie Bordet, Sabrina Feldman, Bartha Maria Knoppers
Language: English
Subfield: Physiology
Field: Medicine
Domain: Health Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W1581317666