Fertility panel takes shape

By By DEBORAH GYAPONG

OTTAWA (CCN) -- The pre-Christmas appointment of a 10-member board to run a newly created federal agency called Assisted Human Reproduction Canada (AHRC) has reaped praise for its diversity but also controversy because four members have previously expressed "socially conservative" views.

The agency, called for under the 2004 Assisted Human Reproduction Act, will administer and enforce the law, which prohibits human cloning and the sale of human eggs or gametes and controls research using in-vitro embryos.

The new federal agency's goals, policies, and $9 million budget will be submitted to the board, which will oversee the agency's decisions on licensing for fertility procedures or research using in-vitro embryos; evaluate its performance; and provide advice to health minister Tony Clement.

"This impressive group of individuals represents a rich diversity of experience and perspectives," Clement said in a Dec. 21 news release announcing the appointment of Elinor Wilson, the former CEO of the Canadian Public Health Association, as the agency's president and Dr. John Hamm, a family doctor who served as premier of Nova Scotia from 1999 to 2006, as board chairman.

The other eight appointees are Suzanne Scorsone, director of research and senior communications consultant for the Archdiocese of Toronto, who holds a doctorate in cultural anthropology; David Novak, a rabbi who is a Jewish studies professor and member of the Joint Centre for Bioethics at the University of Toronto; Dr. Joseph Ayoub, an oncologist and McGill University professor; Francoise Baylis, a bioethics expert and Dalhousie University professor; Roger Bilodeau, an Ottawa lawyer and public policy expert; Dr. Albert Chudley, the medical director of Winnipeg's Genetics and Metabolism Program; Barbara Slater, a health policy consultant trained as a pharmacist; and Theresa Kennedy, a corporate communications vice president for a B.C. biotechnology company.

Globe `arguing for group think': institute director

Clement's press secretary Erik Waddell would not comment about the controversy over the appointments. "We believe the people we appointed to do that job will do it adequately and effectively and always in the interest of the health and safety of Canadians," he said in a Jan. 2 telephone interview from Ottawa.

"This government is committed to protecting the health and safety, human dignity and human rights of Canadians who use or are born from the use of reproductive technologies, and we also want to foster the application of ethical principles in assisted human reproduction."

Waddell told the Globe and Mail that stem-cell research "is still legal in Canada and we have no intention of changing that."

Scorsone said she is delighted with her appointment, but she will not speculate about what issues are likely to be raised or comment on any media controversy.

"For those of us on the board, it is very early days yet," she said. "We haven't met, so I'm looking very much forward to meeting with the other members of the board and the president and the chairman and seeing what the tasks before us are."

"Wait a year," she said.

The Globe and Mail newspaper has published a series of articles and an editorial criticizing the appointments of Scorsone and three others.

"The board's eight members include those who have in the past spoken out against abortion, embryonic stem-cell research, and the way in which stem-cell scientists operate," wrote Carolyn Abraham in a Dec. 23 Globe and Mail story titled "Critics troubled by new fertility panel."

The articles refer to Scorsone's 25 years with the Toronto archdiocese and to her having said she opposed the creation of extra embryos that might be discarded after fertility treatments. The articles also mention her dissenting views as a member of the Royal Commission on New Reproductive Technologies, which reported its recommendations in 1993.

The Globe has also reported that Novak opposed abortion unless the life of the mother is threatened, that Ayoub had spoken against euthanasia at a pro-life conference, and that Baylis had opposed the use of unfrozen embryos in research. It suggested in a Dec. 29 editorial the board had been "stacked" with people with conservative views.

Joseph Ben-Ami, executive director of the Institute for Canadian Values, was troubled by the Globe's targeting of the minority of socially conservative voices.

"I think they do their readers a great disservice," he said. "They are trying to present themselves as balanced and fair, but really what they're arguing for is group think. It is intellectually dishonest."

Ben-Ami said he rejected the implied premise that conservatives and people with religious faith are ideologues, unable to compromise and therefore unqualified for positions on boards like the so-called fertility panel, while those on the left are "automatically portrayed as being open-minded, thoughtful, and conciliatory."

"The whole thing is just bunk," he said.

Scorsone would not comment specifically on any media reports. She did, however, defend the right of all citizens to take part in the political process.

"This is a democracy, and in a democracy people across the spectrum are citizens and have not only a right but also a responsibility to be part of the public discourse on matters of great human importance," she said.

The government has set aside $9 million for this fiscal year and rented offices in Vancouver. The budget will rise to $12 million next fiscal year.