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A TOP legal commission in Canada has recommended that research on embryos
be permitted up to 14 days, provided that ‘proper safeguards’ are put in
place. This is the same period that would be allowed under one version of
the Embryo Bill currently under debate in the British parliament.

The Canadian recommendation is part of a wide-ranging report on biomedical
experimentation involving human subjects. It was released last month by
the federally funded Law Reform Commission of Canada.

While the report acknowledges that a 14-day limit is ‘arbitrary’, it
justifies this cutoff in terms of development. Between the 14th and 17th
day of gestation, the basis of the central nervous system of an embryo begins
to form. At this time it also becomes apparent if one or more individuals
will start to grow from the embryo. Thus, the report says, at 14 days an
embryo becomes a ‘person’ for the purposes of law.

In a 69-page working paper, the commissioners outline the conditions
under which embryos could be used in research for’non-therapeutic experimentation’.
The commission defines non-therapeutic experimentation as research conducted
solely for the advancement of knowledge.

The report says that it is appropriate to legislate for a 14-day limit
‘if only to ensure that research done in Canada will be as respected as
that done in the rest of the world’. But not everyone is happy with this
argument. ‘Certainly it’s the first time I’ve heard that it’s OK to experiment
on a human entity so that your research is ‘respected’ in the rest of the
world,’ says Margaret Somerville, director of the McGill University Centre
for Medicine, Ethics and Law in Montreal.

The creation of embryos specifically for scientific experimentation
should be strictly prohibited, the document declares. Likewise, certain
experimental procedures, including cloning and the crossing of human and
animal gametes, should be outlawed. Another recommendation is that reimplantation
of experimentally altered fetuses should be illegal.

Ironically, the report also cites ‘international consensus’ as a further
justification for a 14-day limit on embryo research. However, recent developments
in Europe suggest that such a consensus remains elusive. The West German
government is proposing a ban on all uses of live embryos in research, France
is discussing a seven-day limit, and the British parliament is split on
whether or not to allow research up to 14 days.