downloading the PDF - Robson Hall Faculty of Law

BRIEFS
UNIVERSITY
OF MANITOBA
PROPOSAL
Sexual and Reproductive Rights
RESEARCH ROUNDTABLE BRINGS LEADING
EXPERTS TO ROBSON HALL
The Centre for Human Rights
Research at Robson Hall has
shepherded development of a
University of Manitoba proposal
to house the National Research
Centre to be established by
the TRC to care for its archives
and carry on its work once its
formal mandate ends in 2014.
Here is an excerpt from the
proposal, about the University
of Manitoba’s vision for the
National Research Centre.
The University of Manitoba is
prepared to steward the Truth
and Reconciliation Commission’s
archives and provide a secure
environment to make them
widely accessible digitally,
subject to privacy law and
culturally appropriate access
protocols. We would also
foster a cross-Canada network
in universities and selected
Friendship Centres, help
educate and find jobs for the
next generation of Aboriginal
archivists, provide display space
and social support for visitors
and encourage indoor and
outdoor ceremonial observance.
We envision doing this work in
collaboration with the National
Association of Friendship
Centres, the Legacy of Hope
Foundation and other Aboriginal
organizations and peoples.
The Supreme Court of
Canada’s ruling in December
2010 that some aspects of
the federal Assisted Human
Reproduction Act violated
provincial jurisdiction should
have re-opened the debate
in Canada about what legal
regimes should govern the use
of reproductive technologies.
However, provincial
governments have been
reluctant to step in and fill the
gaps on this controversial issue,
while a black market in human
eggs, sperm and surrogacy
flourishes. Meanwhile, the
Assisted Human Reproduction
Agency was eliminated in the
2012 federal budget.
Concerned that the law lags
far behind science, ethics and
rapidly evolving public opinion,
20 leading Canadian legal
experts came to Winnipeg
in February for a research
roundtable on the regulation of
assisted human reproduction,
hosted by Robson Hall Law
Professor Karen Busby.
The event was jointly sponsored
by University of Manitoba’s
new Centre for Human Rights
Research and the Canadian
Journal of Women and the Law/
Revue femmes et droit, both
housed in Robson Hall, with
additional financial assistance
from the Legal Research Institute.
A number of seminal – pardon
the pun – court cases are brewing
in Canada, including some on
recognition of the parentage
and citizenship of foreign-born
children who were conceived
using assisted reproduction.
Meanwhile, a sperm donor
recently won paternity rights
after the child’s mother died.
Researchers at the
Robson Hall roundtable,
which inspired stories
on CBC national radio,
shared preliminary
results of research on
international surrogacy
and on the potential for
hundreds of half siblings
when sperm donation is
not adequately regulated.
The group talked about the
potential for law reform and the
reality that provincial colleges
of physicians are plugging the
regulatory gap with their own
rules, without significant input
from many stakeholders beyond
clinic owners.
The CJWL/RFD, co-edited
by Law Professor Debra
Parkes, is planning a special
issue devoted to feminist
approaches to assisted
human reproduction after the
Supreme Court reference.
UNIVERSITY OF MANITOBA, FACULTY OF LAW robsonhall.ca 48