June 1, 2004

Canadian Conservative party would ban embryonic stem cell research for 3 years

With less than four weeks to go before the federal election, the Conservative Party of Canada has announced that if elected it would invoke a 3-year ban on embryonic stem cell research:
"We...call on the federal government to encourage its granting agencies to focus on the more promising adult (post-natal) stem cell research," it says. "This field should be governed by principles that respect human individuality, integrity, dignity and life."
Of course, this would actually be an affront to human dignity and life as the plight of real persons would be set aside in favour of cell clump fetishizing.

A number of the recently announced stances are an amalgamation of the policies of the former Progressive Conservative and Canadian Alliance parties; both have a tradition or conservative policies and heavily religious agendas.

The current policy in Canada in regards to stem cell research is that it is allowed under certain conditions, while therapeutic cloning is strictly forbidden. While still very conservative in its approach, the Conservatives would make the Canadian situation potentially stricter than it is the United States (where they're currently debating whether or not to add additional embryo lines) which would an unbelievably disappointing turn of events.

And in typical Canadian fashion, this type of news and election promise goes utterly unnoticed....

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