Cana Movement: The proposed amendments to the Embryo Protection Act attempt to cancel out differences endowed by nature itself

Cana Movement is sensitive to the desire of couples to bear and bring up children and they should be supported in this noble vocation.  The current Embryo Protection Act favours assistance to infertile couples. Children are gifts and not entitlements or commodities. IVF policies should therefore not relegate the rights of the unborn child to the desire to bear children at all costs, no matter how noble that desire may be. The balance between the rights of the unborn child and the interests of infertile couples is currently struck by the Embryo Protection Act.

The proposed amendments allow embryo freezing which inevitably leads to embryo stock piling. Human embryos are destined to become frozen orphans in violation of the dignity with which every unborn child should be treated. 

The proposed amendments also contemplate the possibility of anonymous gamete donation and surrogacy. These practices deprive children from being brought up by their natural parents and in some instances from the right to know the identity of their biological parents. 

In the name of equality, the proposed amendments to the Embryo Protection Act attempt to cancel out differences endowed by nature itself, they refute the complimentarity of mothers and fathers in the bringing up of children. Far from promoting equality, the proposed amendments are discriminatory allowing some unborn children to proceed to gestation and birth whilst others are frozen.

Cana Movement appeals to civil society and to politicians of goodwill from both sides of the political spectrum to vote against the proposed amendments to the Embryo Protection Act which are a travesty of human dignity, to take a stand against embryo freezing and in favour of the rights of children to be brought up by their natural parents.