Our very own Erin Lepine was featured last week on CBC Radio’s Ontario Today, talking about the baby born earlier this year who was the product of a “three-parent” fertility technique.
The Jordanian mother carries genes for Leigh syndrome, a fatal disorder that means babies rarely live longer than two to three years. Embryologists used a process called spindle nuclear transfer, which uses genetic material from three different people, in an attempt to produce an embryo without the genes for the disorder. It is the first time in the world this technique has been used.
This situation raises a whole raft of questions:
- Is this technique legal in Canada?
- What is the legal role of the “third parent”?
- How many legal parents can a person have?
- Most importantly, has Canadian law kept up with the advances in fertility and assisted reproduction?
To learn more and get answers to these questions, take a listen to the interview here.
For more questions related to fertility and assisted reproduction, contact our Family Law Group.
And to read more about our work, take a look at our page on Adoption, Reproductive Technology and Surrogacy.
