Cloning legislation in Canada

Last week's announcement that a Montreal-based biotechnology firm had successfully cloned three goats has rekindled concerns about human cloning in Canada. Despite the existence of a voluntary moratorium on human cloning, in late April the Canadian Health Minister Allan Rock announced the federal government's intention to introduce legislation criminalising certain reproductive and genetic technologies.

A bill is to be tabled later in the year after a period of consultation. Bill C-47, which failed to pass through parliament before the last election in spring 1997, would have criminalised any form of trade in gametes and embryos.

Nexia Biotechnologies Inc, which cloned the goats, hopes to introduce a silk-making gene from spiders into cells from the three goats, with a view to cloning a new generation of transgenic goats capable of producing silk proteins in their milk. Nexia plan to use the recovered proteins to produce artificial tendons, ligaments and sutures.