A Canadian fertility clinic that found itself in hot water after refusing to help conceive mixed-race babies has revised its policy.
The controversy flared up this week when the Regional Fertility Program, a privately owned company that is the only facility of its sort in Calgary, refused to help a Caucasian woman fall pregnant with a child who did not share her same racial background.
Until Monday the clinic’s website featured a policy which read: “It is the practice of the Regional Fertility Program not to permit the use of a sperm donor that would result in a future child appearing racially different than the recipient or the recipient’s partner.”
Last week the clinic’s administrative director, Dr Calvin Green, confirmed the practice’s ban on creating mixed raced babies to the Calgary Herald saying the racial policy had been in place for decades and was consistent with Ottawa’s Assisted Human Reproduction Act, which discourages doctors from helping create “designer babies”.
“I’m not sure that we should be creating rainbow families just because some single woman decides that that’s what she wants,” said Green. “That’s her prerogative, but that’s not her prerogative in our clinic.”
But according to a statement made by a clinic spokesperson, Paula Arab, the private practice had revised its policy in 2013 but had failed to reflect the changes on their website.
“For more than a year, patients of the Regional Fertility Program have had the choice of egg or sperm donors of any ethnicity. Unfortunately, this change in policy was not updated on our website, which is currently under construction. This was an oversight and that older policy has now been removed.”
But the overhaul did not come until after the old racial policy had caused outrage from those in high places, including Gloria Poirier, the executive director of the Infertility Awareness Association of Canada.
“Clinics are private, they have standards, they have best practices, they have a code of ethics, and … this is not something that’s ethical,” Poirier told the Globe and Mail. “We certainly don’t support that.”
Meanwhile, Alberta Liberal Party leader Raj Sherman told the Calgary Herald the case highlights the need for public backing of invitro fertilization.
“You can’t have these private companies, because of their personal policies, being forced onto Albertans. That’s the issue with this clinic,” Sherman said.
“It’s the government’s job to be the referee, government’s job is to pass the legislation and set the regulations and the rules. And the rules must be made in conjunction with the leaders of the medical community who do the work.”
