From Homo sapiens to Techno sapiens

Professor in the Faculty of Medicine
Founding Director of the Faculty of Law's Centre for Medicine,
Ethics and Law at McGill University

Children’s Human Rights  to Natural Human Origin

Some old and new phenomena – adoption is old, new reproductive and genetic technologies and same-sex marriage are new – have recently thrown the issue of children’s rights with respect to their biological origins and biological families into the public policy spotlight and public square debate.  

Adoption has long challenged children’s rights with respect to their biological families. Early in the 20th century, societally condoned sperm donation presented a similar challenge. In the last thirty years new reproductive and genetic technologies (NRTs) have brought, and will continue to bring, unprecedented challenges. And, most recently same-sex marriage has done so. 

 From Homo sapiens to Techno sapiens: Children’s Human Rights to Natural Human Origins”, Proceedings, 14th World Congress on In Vitro Fertilization & 3rd World Congress on In Vitro Maturation, Montreal, 15th – 19th September, 2007.