Hon. David Richards: My thanks to Senator Ataullahjan. Honourable senators, this is the third time I have stood and spoken in support of Senator Ataullahjan’s bill. There’s very little new that I can say. Organ transplant tourism for profit preys upon the vulnerable and impoverished, many of whom are coerced because of desperation. The practice itself is filled with a horrid first-world elitism.

There are too many stories of children being blinded, or poverty-stricken men and women coerced into giving up their organs for pay they never receive or left with debilitating consequences. Too many prisoners have organs taken to supply those who might afford it as if they were living in a Frankensteinian gulag. In fact, this makes Mary Shelley pale by comparison.

This bill aims at preventing illegal organ transplant tourism for profit and making such transactions liable and criminal in Canada and by Canadians. I can’t think of a reason that this would not be passed by acclamation as it was in this chamber during the last Parliament. Thank you.