Mr. Speaker, this was quite a shocking aspect of the whole procedure. In the middle of the committee and Parliament debating this, the Canadian Institutes of Health Research came out with their own guidelines that would allow embryonic research. That caused quite a furor. They agreed to withhold funding for embryonic stem cell research until April 1.
The research guidelines established by the CIHR are not consistent with what the committee heard in terms of the potential of the adult stem cells that would allow the scientists to go full hog after embryos to see what they could do with them. We feel the emphasis should be focused on adult stem cell research where the great potential is for Canadians.
I have a quick word on chimera because it was an important aspect of the bill and it is related. The bill would allow the mixing of human and animal genes for research purposes. The risks associated with mixing cell components, or genes of animals and humans are untold for humanity because of viruses that are contained within those cells. It is an area that we should approach with a lot of caution. The bill leaves it open which is not good enough.