Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - December 7, 1982, Winnipeg, Manitoba Winnipeg free december 1982 f by Arthur Schafer special to the free press a report that a Winni Peg physician is about to attempt to create a test tube baby raises moral and social questions that require serious the process of human in Vitro fertilization if and embryo if it will be a Canadian it has been done successfully Many times else but the morality of it is still being the historical catalyst for this development occurred in 1978 with the successful by English re searchers Patrick Steptoe and Robert of an egg fertilized in and the subsequent birth on july 25 of baby Louise the procedure involves by woman ova and then fertilizing them in a culture dish with the sperm of her the embryo is after a few transplanted into her despite considerable1 Public and scientific anxiety about the risks involved in this procedure in the risk of producing genetically defective offspring Louis Brown is today a healthy four year old and the technique has been repeated successfully Many times in England and in Jan uary americas first therapeutic in Vitro fertilization clinic opened in but the debate concerning the moral Wisdom of if has not it is just begin at present there Are no Legal or ethical guidelines established in Canada to regulate or control such proce the problem is this we Are faced with a dramatic new medical technology which carries with it prom ise of great Benefit and threat of great modern Medicine has confronted us with a number of new technologies affecting human Concep gestation and these include artificial insemination by donor genetic foetal surgery Surro Gate the next few years Are Likely to witness an expansion of this list to include sex and commercial storage and banking of human ova and cloning asexual reproduction is a these new individually and by their cumulative Are Likely to have a profound effect upon our values and attitudes to family and towards human life our reproductive habits and practices May be significantly but there has been virtually no in formed Public discussion of the Possi ble social Impact of such new tech nolo we As no social and we have no agreed procedures for arriving at the veil of secrecy which initially surrounded this particular Case in Winnipeg Anonymous undisclosed unrevealed Date for commencement of the procedure All too typical of our style of coping with dramatic new the secrecy and Reti Cence of physicians eager to proceed with these new techniques is under an aroused Public opinion May be moved by inflamed by swayed by unduly alarmist and in Conse prevent the introduction of beneficial new on the other this very secrecy on the part of the medical profession May feed and encourage an alarmist response from the what society needs is an informed Public Calm and in which the Vari Ous benefits and costs can be assessed and a sensible set of guidelines forum for the thousands of Canadian women who suffer from blocked Ovi the use of if offers the Only Prospect for overcoming Many infertile couples Are desperately eager to have their own genetic defenders of if argue that the desire to have children is amongst the most Basic of hum Arr those who Are involuntarily condemned to permanent sterility can suffer serious emotional critics of if Are wont to View the procedure of making babies in laboratories As an unnatural Degra Dation of advocates of by contend that it is positively desirable for human beings to take responsibility for human repro Why should we be prisoners of Blind if modern technology enables us to rectify accidents of nature such As fallopian tube demise and thereby restore we should not be inhibited by prejudice against artificial methods of although they May sympathize with the plight of infertile critics of if invoke a number of moral doubts and troubling speculations As justification for opposing the procedure or at least delaying its introduction until we Are More confident about whether it is Safe to perhaps the most widely canvassed of the arguments invoked against if is that which appeals to the Slippery human if and embryo trans Fer May be but the first step towards engineered against the argument that if is a giant step towards the full Laboratory control of human its defenders View it primarily As a Welcome libera Tion from infertility and As an effective Means to reduce the incidence of genetic development of the if technique is Likely to give us the ability to engage in predetermination of embryonic if those who wish to have children of a particular sex in a preselected order Are provided with the Means to achieve their society might be con fronted with a Radical sexual Iqbal could we for with a society in which males came to outnumber females by a Large ratio possible social implications of the use or misuse of such Power Are mind bog say the As the processes of human Gesta Tion and birth become increasingly respect for life itself May be family Bonds and self image May be such fearful Lon term consequences Are difficult to establish and equally difficult to but they hover like a spectre in the background of the debate As a source of some in a question for society a judgment is needed on medical engineering ethics Louise Brown was the first test tube baby All of society needs to participate in the debate another potential problem associated with if arises from the fact that the usual practice is to fertilize several ova and then to discard those which Are genetically defective or which Are sur plus to those who oppose Abor Tion May worry about the practice of discarding mishaps any unused fertilized the ethical propriety of Experiment ing on unused fertilized eggs is also at at test tube fertilization succeed Only 20 to 25 per cent of the Many physicians most Steptoe and Edwards wish to Experiment on some of the spare embryos in order to gain knowledge which will improve the Suc Cess but Many opponents of if and even some supporters have Ethi Cal doubts about the permissibility of such what is the moral status of a newly fertilized human egg is there a need for Legal Protection one must consider the Ethi Cal problem posed by the need for criteria of patient if we de cide to allow the should it be restricted to married couples some would find it morally objectionable if the if procedure were used by single women or surrogate others would consider it unfairly discriminatory if such candidates were the Virginia if clinic As a condition of that candidates be both married and with no other possibility of achieving pregnancy by any medically known in Addi applicants must satisfy a physic Ian that their marriage is As in the infertile couple must have considerable financial re sources it order to be Able to afford the Steep no if for the infertile of if infertility is consider ered 1o be a disease and if a then it May be decided that medicare should cover the costs of the this in raise the Issue of whether if deserves financial priority in society allocation of scarce medical As will be Clear even from this Brief Survey of the issues raised by the procedure is one about which it is legitimate to entertain moral against these moral doubts one must set the intense feelings of the Many infertile couples who Hope to Benefit from this new medical the principle of individual Liberty cannot be lightly set aside the right is claimed to have ones personal and marital privacy neither government nor society should inter it is when personally intimate reproductive decisions Are in one has the right to be let alone about medical and to seek the Means necessary to achieve ones life so Long As there is no demonstrable harm to Here is the rub demonstrable harm to what sorts of possible consequences should be counted As truly and How Likely or probable must the harm be in order to warrant restrictive interference these will not be easy questions to but answer them we society cannot and should not expect to shuffle its responsibilities onto the medical profession or some other elite we need to draw upon the knowledge and experience of the medi Cal profession but the Issue is one which Calls for ethical and political judgment rather than for narrowly technical Arthur Schafer lectures on biomedical ethics at the University of Gas Well Blowout brings fear to Alberta Edmonton albertan have usually ignored the hazards of living near the Oil and Gas but they Are no longer so the Gas Well Blowout at the smell est and deadliest in Alberta has reminded everyone that this is a dangerous business for the whole prov Hydrogen Sulphide Gas from the Well has killed two knocked at least a dozen others and sickened Many people from Edmonton to people More than 100 Kilometres from the Well have complained of head nausea and one Doc Tor has warned pregnant mothers to leave Edmonton when the smell is because there is some the Gas May cause birth when the Well is not burning and the wind is the stench in Edmonton is like Rotten eggs Fried in it is bad enough in the open but some times it is even worse in Homes and apartments because the Gas collects in basements and drifts slowly even in minute the Gas attacks objects As Well As it has played havoc with Telephone equip ment by tarnishing Contact it Don braid in Alberta turns the Silver in jewellery stores and Homes an alarming and has deadened the Sheen on brass fixtures in the Alberta the odor has worked its Way into everyday spreading dozens of Limp women Are urged to Wear a new eau Joe Clark was upset when he toured his Riding and saw people holding their noses he thought they were review ing his for the Alberta the Blowout is no it has tarnished the tories by calling into question both their environmental standards and their from the moment the Blowout occurred october they assured every one that there was no danger except in the immediate area of the and certainly not in they left the vital Job of capping the Well to the company that drilled Amoco Cana and to a team of supposedly expert Joe Bowdens wild Well con even More the govern ment did not insist that Amoco flare the Well Standard measure that would have eliminated the odor until the texans were ready to Cap so the noxious stench was left to spread until the Well caught fire Acci dentally november then the Gas burned for nearly two weeks before the workers finally snuffed it out with three Days when they waded through the dense Gas to Cap the a Freak Accident killed one of them and sent at least a dozen others to a second Man later died in Hospital in survivors later said the men were within centimetres of getting a capping device into place when the Gas suddenly spread out knocking them out almost everyone admired their but some began to question their Amoco insisted they were the Best in the business and left them on the some alarming facts began to the provinces Stan Dard for Hydrogen Sulphide emissions is parts per but officials insisted there was no danger to health even when Edmonton recorded Levels 50 times a 1978 government study re commended that everyone should be evacuated if Levels reach 15 parts per million for More than 15 but no general evacuation was ordered from communities near the site when the count hit 16 parts per there was alarm in Calgary when it was discovered that Wells Only 10 kilo metres from the City were 35 times More toxic than the Lodgepole Calgary residents could be killed with in 20 minutes of a major experts but the City has no evacuation such a plan is not Realis because the disaster would strike too quickly to evacuate government figures revealed that 15 workers have died since 1974 from Hydrogen Sulphide not a single Gas Plant was charged in the last year for which figures Are even though standards were violated in a University of Alberta Law professor and 16 students sued Amoco for claiming the odor had made them the province re fused to order a study into the health effects of the despite urging from doctors who said the government should not waste a rare Opportunity to learn More about its Lon term Impact on a Large hundreds of people began to phone the office of environment minister Fred Bradley to went to the site for a and returned to Edmonton praising the efforts to Cap the less than 24 hours on november it again caught fire Acci the governments Only Concrete action came november when it or dered Amoco not to extinguish the raging fire until the texans were sure the Well could finally be on december six weeks after the Amoco announced that Joe Bowden and his Crew were going they had done a Fine the company but they would be replaced by another Texas outfit called boots and Coots and the Well will not be capped for at least a Many As they prepare to hold their noses once Are won Dering Why the government still ref uses to seize control of a dangerous Don braid is the Edmonton journals political nip throne speech like a religious revival sound and flurry marked the opening of the latest legislative but Little else was at the entire process seemed More Akin to a religious revival than the serious management of a provinces but the message did not reach Many of those sitting in the no every government Hopes that the initial pomp of bands playing and armed forces lining up for will put listeners in a proper Frame of mind to hear a document providing glimpse at things to with Mea sures to redeem the province from previous administrations sins and pre paring it for the new the speech was really not too government Hopes and aspirations were ensconced in verbiage which had been taken apart and put Back together Many times in order to leave an impression that things would yet still providing a Loop Hole just in Case they did not such an approach May be essential in these difficult any govern ment must attempt to protect itself and will constantly Point out the Posi Tive on the other an opposition studies those nebulous determining How they can be translated in order to show inaction or in both it is a matter of for will there or will there not be compulsory legislation for seat motorcycle helmets and other under the dome Arlene Billinkoff protective measures the speech merely indicated a review of Highway safety but the wording ensured that regardless of what the govern ment would not be accused of breaking a a statement that the Manitoba Public insurance corporation would be empowered to enter into the marketing of life insurance and pension management services May have sounded but Howard Pawley told a news gathering that the matter was merely being despite the vagueness in those there were several specific definite amounts of Money would be spent on Home capital employment and with less detailed commitments to Educa and social definite promises were also Given for legislative measures ranging from the controversial farm land ownership and creation of the Manitoba Oil and Gas corporation to a review of family and labor in there seemed to be some certainty about the establishment of new departments of ing and but will those measures achieve the goals outlined at the beginning of the speech were the ministers really committed to action that would develop and deliver programs that address the crisis of unemployment would this group actually provide an compassionate and innovative government in new and trying circumstances insisted new there was a provision for Mullion for special employment and housing which would create or was it jobs the Premier spent considerable time explaining to the Media about the creation but the Fig ures did and there was no evidence that Only new Money would be noted Sterling even if one chose the larger More than people would still be out of the throne speech was merely a lot of froth and he nothing in the document provided much Hope for the Unzem except for nip Paw Ley pointing out that while his government had to be selective and could not assist jobs would be the Premier was also proud to note the province had the Best economic performance in the country this but what would be done in the future the establishment of Manoil and pub Lic investment in Manitoba Mineral re sources did not impress the oppo while the decision to extend Royalty and tax incentives for private Oil companies did not win much a after the tory administration had introduced that Lyon wished there had been some mention of other tory such As resumption of a Meg project or he saw Little to Grant the tories would support surface rights continuation of the education support program and an act on hazardous but they were merely he saw Only a lot of social engineering plans with nothing of substantive any fool could create make work it was self defeat he where were the initiatives unless one was a they were nowhere to be the talk about working with the private sector did not impress he won dered How that statement coincided with the governments intension to in Vade private Fields such As pension and life did that serve the Public interest this government is not looking added tory finance critic Brian instead of dealing with imme Diate problems such As municipal assessments or assistance for Young the nip had offered a pro Gram which would not even go beyond he it totally devoid of Lon term Pawley was not surprised at that admitting that some would say his government was being too while others would insist it had gone too he believed it was proof that his government was on the proper maybe the nip True believers Are also certain that this throne speech has provided a direction for the prov inces but tory not of they never did have much Faith in the current govern doonesbury Rigotti Pup at me hour 127 to Youw Chou 15 Tok hsr5 15 puffing Way it s Somy i w1hou6ht i ;