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Enquiries and Office Examination
Allowable Medical Expenses
We are writing in reply to your memorandum of February 16, 1993, wherein you requested our opinion as to whether certain costs related to a donation to a personalized sperm bank would be considered to be allowable medical expenses.
As we understand it, a taxpayer who is a cancer patient about to undergo chemotherapy has, as a precautionary measure, donated sperm to a sperm bank in Toronto. This was done because there is a possibility that the chemotherapy could cause future sterility in the patient. In this regard, the taxpayer incurred $417 in travel costs to Toronto plus an additional $514 for the processing and storage of the sperm bank donation.
OUR COMMENTS
In our opinion, the costs incurred by the taxpayer do not fulfil any of the requirements of subsection 118.2(2) of the Act and would not, therefore, be considered to be qualifying medical expenses for the purpose of the medical expense tax credit.
P.D. Fuoco Section Chief Personal and General Section Business and General Division Rulings Directorate Legislative and Intergovernmental Affairs Branch
c.c. Client Assistance Directorate