Evidence of meeting #53 for Health in the 42nd Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was program.
A recording is available from Parliament.
NDP
Senior Lecturer, Institute of Medical Sciences, School of Medicine, Medical Sciences and Nutrition, University of Aberdeen, As an Individual
I would agree with Dr. Johnson. It is difficult. There are so many other factors involved. We know 13 or 14 different conditions that are very similar to thalidomide, and you can genetically test for some of those, but not all of them. We don't know. Embryonically, we're still unsure how the embryo forms from a single cell to a fully formed organism, so to understand all of these different things that can go wrong is still unknown.
I think common sense is needed, yes. You could look at the probabilities and say they were born in the right era, they may have had some exposure, and they have some conditions that appear to be thalidomide, but that's as far as you can go, that there's a possibility.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Bill Casey
Okay, the time is up.
That completes our session for this morning. I want to thank all of our witnesses for your answers on a difficult issue and a troublesome subject really. I want to thank our U.K. presenters especially because you're taking the time out of your day to do this for us. It is very helpful.
I want to thank the technicians who did this. We have better video conferencing than CBC news has, I think. They have done a great job of connecting us.
Thanks very much, everybody, and we're going to take just a quick break and then we have a little committee business. I have to talk about witnesses for our next presentation, and I think Mr. Webber might have a motion, so let's just take a minute while our guests pack up and leave.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Bill Casey
The clerk sent around a list of proposed witnesses this morning for Bill C-211 and needs our approval of the witness list, so that we can make sure they're invited and they get here on time.
Is the list all right with everybody, or does anybody have a question or want to make a change on it? The witnesses are all based on recommendations from the committee members. This is for meeting two on May 16.
Do we have the approval of the committee?
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Bill Casey
That is carried, so there's your mission.
Mr. Webber, do you want to discuss your motion or leave it for another time?
Okay, Mr. Webber doesn't want to discuss his motion, so that being heard, the meeting is adjourned.
