Mr. Speaker, next week is Infertility Awareness Week in Canada.
Parenthood is a joyful, challenging and enriching experience and one that most Canadians take for granted.
For 600,000 Canadians coping with infertility, building a family can feel like an insurmountable hurdle.
For these people, being unable to conceive a child can be the biggest physical and psychological problem they have ever had.
As a family doctor, I watched some of my patients struggle with infertility and tried to process the options available to them.
The new Assisted Human Reproduction Agency is to ensure that Canadians, like my former patients who need help forming families receive that help in a safe and ethical way.
It is imperative that the agency be composed of scientific experts and patient representatives, but that has not yet been accomplished. There are still three empty spots on the board. I urge the government to fill them as soon as possible to ensure that families struggling with infertility receive the most complete and informed guidance.