We appear to be living in the darkest of Dark Ages.

We have a convicted bombmaker, Inderjit Singh Reyat, as per the Toronto Star (Sept. 10), who repeatedly told the Air India trial, “I don’t know,” “I can’t remember,” “I can’t recall” and lied 19 times during his testimony, according to Crown lawyer Len Doust.

Reyat already pleaded guilty to supplying bomb parts in the June 23, 1985 twin Air India bombings that killed 333 people. Reyat was accused of lying repeatedly over three days on the witness stand to protect two conspirators who were later acquitted of mass murder. Shame.

Parmar, a leader of a Sikh terrorist group, was killed in a shootout with Indian police before he could be charged in the bombings. There was a picture of Reyat in the Star laughing. So far the score is: Bombmakers: 333, dead bombmakers: one. Maybe that’s why he’s laughing.

What a shambles we make when we blunder into God’s baby-making world. The  National Post reported (Sept. 18) that allegations of the wrong sperm was used in two fertility treatments in Ottawa. The lawyer for the two families is suing an Ottawa fertility doctor, Dr. Bernard Norman Barwin, former president of Planned Parent Canada, for allegedly using the wrong sperm samples to create their children. They also say that other parents in the clinic, which Barwin owns, may be in for a surprise.

The lawsuits in the Ontario Supreme Court, seek $3-million in damages. The court is being asked to order a test of Barwin to rule out “the possibility that he was the donor whose sperm was used to inseminate.” Ouch.

Trudy Moore, 36, and her husband Matthew Guest, also 36, used Moore’s sister as a surrogate. Guest’s sperm sample did not achieve a pregnancy and more insemination samples were provided by Guest. The plaintiff thought the sperm provided earlier by Guest to Barwin was kept frozen.

The insemination was successful and the couple’s daughter, Samantha, was born Dec. 29, 2007. The parents were informed that their daughter had Rh positive blood. Guest and Trudy’s sister were RH-negative. A DNA test proved that Guest was not Samantha’s biological father. Oh-oh.

The parents seek a court order to require Barwin to disclose whose sperm was used, and if any of Guest’s sperm was used to inseminate other women.

The second lawsuit was filed in August 2010 in Ottawa by Jacqueline Slinn who claims she was inseminated by Barwin from a donor identified as No. 3168 and gave birth to a baby girl, Bridget, on March 15, 2005. Slinn joined a donor sibling registry with other mothers who had also been inseminated by No. 3168. In June 2008, Slinn agreed to have Bridget tested and compared with two other children in the group. The test revealed that none of them shared the same biological father.

By April 2010 Slinn knew conclusively that her daughter was not a match for No. 3168. These sample cases raise a lot of concerns as to health consequences to mother and child in artificial insemination. Was Barwin a bad bookkeeper or a sloppy file clerk? Can we trust him to keep any factual genetic heritage information on the child? What about donor No. 3168? Does that mean there’s at least 3168 sperm donors floating around Ottawa? They’re not just doing this chore for love. Tax collecting bureaucrats in Ottawa take notes.

Women are being fooled into believing false fertility hopes. The success rate for infertile women declines drastically after the age of about 34, with the technology-aided birth rate hitting barely 1 per cent for those over the age of 46. (Mind you there are exceptions to every rule. My wife and I, married late, had a number of pregnancies without any help from Mother Science and had two healthy children in our 40s. Thank you, Lord.)

Hats off to Canadian Blood Services CEO Graham Sher for obtaining a successful Ontario September court ruling when the CBS refused donations from men who have had sex with men. The CBS also had a list of others who can’t give blood for a host of good reasons to avoid the chance on their iffy blood. If the Ontario Court would have chickened out of doing the right thing, I would have specified that in the event of an emergency that I would be given only pints of Utah Mormon Blood. Do I smell a new Canadian industry importing UM blood? I hope so. In our world you’ve gotta have hope.