My understanding is that committee members have already received the deck on section 8, so I won't presume to go over it. We can respond to questions following this.
I want to give a few highlights of the deck. Section 8 regulations were developed first, because section 8 is the only prohibition not yet in force. You'll probably be hearing that story over and over again this afternoon. While section 8 is not the only section in the AHR Act that addresses the issue of consent, it provides the essential minimal requirements for consent to protect users of AHR services.
As Hélène said, section 14, once in force, will require, among other things, that licensees inform a person in writing of the requirements of the act respecting the retention, use, provision to other persons, and destruction of the human reproductive material or in vitro embryos. Licensees will also be required to obtain written consent to the application of these requirements, and they must ensure that counselling services are received.
Additional regulations will be developed to deal with issues related to the conservation, transportation and destruction of human reproductive material and in vitro embryos.
Section 8 deals with the issue of written consent for the use of human reproductive material and in vitro embryos and the posthumous removal of human reproductive material.
The proposed regulations require that donors be informed of the allowable uses for their human reproductive material and in vitro embryos and of the conditions for withdrawal of consent. They also require that donors provide a written consent that is attested to by a witness.
The section 8 regulations conform to the provisions of the 2002 CIHR “Human Pluripotent Stem Cell Research Guidelines”, as required by section 3 of the AHR Act, notably with respect to the following issues: the reiteration of consent, the withdrawal of consent, and obtaining the consent of the original gamete provider if they are not the same as the in vitro embryo donor. The regulations include transitional provisions for human reproductive material and in vitro embryos that were obtained prior to the regulations coming into force. They can still be used as long as written consent was obtained.
That concludes my remarks.