Calgary (Canada) fertility clinic in hot water after refusing to help with mixed-race babies
Gloria Galloway and Carrie Tait
OTTAWA and CALGARY The Globe and Mail
Published Monday, Jul. 28 2014, 4:50 PM EDT
Last updated Tuesday, Jul. 29 2014, 11:18 AM EDT
A Calgary fertility clinic is at the centre of an ethical and political controversy after it refused to help a woman become impregnated with sperm from a donor who did not share her skin colour.
The Regional Fertility Program, a privately owned company that is the only facility of its sort in Calgary, said in a statement on Monday that one of its doctors was voicing his own opinions when he told a single Caucasian woman seeking in vitro fertilization that she could receive sperm from only white donors.
The clinic went on to say that a ban on creating mixed-race babies that was in place for decades was removed last year, but the website was not properly updated to reflect the change.
Mondays statement that the clinic had revised its approach did not come until after the old policy had received a strong rebuke from federal government and fertility experts across the country. The incident also highlighted the fact that fertility clinics in Alberta and other parts of Canada are not regulated and that the doctors who work in them set their own parameters.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com//news/national/calgary-fertility-clinic-in-spotlight-over-policy-to-restrict-donations-to-patients-of-same-ethnicity/article19813167/?cmpid=rss1&click=sf_globe
Well, that's not very polite, eh?