Mr. Speaker, I rise to present two quite different petitions on the same subject. These are petitions from citizens in the Peterborough area who are concerned about end stage kidney disease.
The first petition is in support of research to develop the bioartificial kidney. This is an experimental implant that will replace transplantation and dialysis. This is a project that is close to human trials.
The citizens of Peterborough call upon parliament to work to support the bioartificial kidney which eventually will eliminate the need for both dialysis and transplantation for those suffering from kidney disease.
The second petition is also about kidney research. The citizens of the Peterborough area greatly support the work of our national institute which does kidney research but it is called the Institute of Nutrition, Metabolism and Diabetes. The citizens of Peterborough believe that the institute would be even more effective if the word kidney was included in the title. It would then engage the public more in the very fine work it does.
The petitioners call upon parliament to encourage the Canadian Institutes of Health Research to explicitly include kidney research as one of the institutes in its system, to be named the institute of kidney and urinary tract diseases.