(1990) The EFC sketches out an answer to the question of how far society should pursue reproductive technologies in this November 1990 submission to the Royal Commission on New Reproductive Technologies. The EFC suggests limits to reproductive technologies on the basis of a focus on children rather than the desires of adults, a focus on parenthood rather than ownership and an emphasis on treatment, not circumvention, of infertility. Read the complete brief as a PDF Download.
Introduction
The Evangelical Fellowship of Canada (EFC) appreciates the opportunity to appear before the Royal Commission on New Reproductive Technologies. We understand the difficulty of your task and hope that our suggestions for limiting new reproductive technologies to beneficial purposes will be useful to the Commission as it deals with these complex issues.
The major dilemma is this: On the one hand we sympathize with the plight of infertile couples who will go to almost any length to have a child. On the other hand, we recognize the dangers of technologies whose use, even in the best circumstances, could be ethically objectionable and destructive of human relations. Also, the money these technologies require cannot be spent on other urgent social or medical needs. The question is, How far can society go in researching and applying new reproductive technologies without causing too many problems, running too many risks, and incurring disproportionate costs? This is an environmental problem of sorts, where we are the environment.
We believe in the dignity of human life and in the value for human life of family and parenthood. On these bases, we offer the following possible answers to this difficult question regarding limits of new technologies.