Mr. Speaker, I am proud to rise to present two quite different petitions which relate to the same topic. The petitions relate to end stage kidney disease. They have been developed in the Peterborough area by Ken Sharp, a person who has been on kidney dialysis his entire adult life.
The first petition deals with support for research regarding the bioartificial kidney. As we know, the bioartificial kidney is an experimental implant device which would greatly improve the situation of those who have end stage kidney disease.
The petitioners call on parliament to support the bioartificial kidney which would eventually eliminate the need for both dialysis and transplantation for those suffering from kidney disease.
My second petition, as I said, is related but is quite different. It concerns the Canadian Institutes of Health Research and its Institute of Nutrition, Metabolism and Diabetes which does wonderful work for kidney research.
Many of my constituents believe that work would be more effective if the name of the institute included the word kidney. They call on parliament to encourage the Canadian Institutes of Health Research to explicitly include kidney research as one of the institutes in its system. They ask that it be named the Institute of Kidney and Urinary Tract Diseases.