Mr. Speaker, I will pass on to the member the documents we received announcing the ban by the health minister for Quebec with regard to embryonic stem cell research.
I know the member has a legal background and I want to ask her about the patentability of genetic material. I think the health committee report made it very clear that we had very little idea of what was going on in Canada in terms of research and very little information was offered.
From the information we see in the media, for instance, there is the so-called Harvard mouse that has been genetically modified. A patent is being sought and in fact it is going to the supreme court.
Could the member advise the House whether she is aware of the state of health of the Patent Act and whether it is up to date in terms of being flexible enough to deal with complex matters such as patenting of genetic materials?