Health committee  Under the regulations, the donor is the child. But surrogate testing as well as a physical exam are done of the mother, simply because of the relationship, and the mother would have the risk, not the child. But the donor is the child, under the regulations.

Health committee  The supply issue would probably be better dealt with by our guest speakers. As to the effect on safety, etc., we have done cost-benefit analyses, and we have done a lot of research on developing the regulations. We do not believe the regulations have limited or made cord blood

Health committee  I wouldn't be able to comment on the cost, but as far as the regulations themselves are concerned, they apply to imported cord blood as well, so the safety standard is the same.

Health committee  The cell tissue and organ regulations are different from the blood regulations; they don't have the same criteria. There is no exemption for people who have lived in Africa or outside the country, or travelling restrictions, which there are currently for blood. So that is not a r

Health committee  Sorry, this is just to clarify that as far as the guidance is concerned in developing around research and clinical trials, etc., that do exist, they do fall under division 5 and there is guidance. There is a working group in place to develop specific guidance for clinical trials

Health committee  Thank you very much, Madam Chair. I'd like to thank the chair and this committee for the opportunity to address you this morning--almost afternoon. I'm here representing Health Canada. I've been asked to explain Health Canada's regulatory requirements with regard to cord blood b

Health committee  Thank you very much.

Health committee  The statistics that we have come from our Public Health Agency of Canada. They bring them together and they report on them every six months. The information that we have, based on the Public Health Agency of Canada's surveillance reports, basically is quite different from Dr. Lev

Health committee  Again, that was a situation that I think emphasizes the need for donor screening. In this particular case, there was one organ donor who basically was identified with a high-risk behaviour, a risk of transmitting disease. The decision was reached by the transplanting physician t

Health committee  These regulations, and particularly the standards, were developed by the community, by transplant experts. To leave something in without giving it more context.... Again, these are based on science. We have to go back to the science and the risk factors.

Health committee  There were two types of consultation for the development of these standards. The first was the consultative process that was undertaken by the CSA That consultation process included publication on websites. There was identification of over 1,000 programs and establishments and pa

Health committee  No. The criteria are science-based, and we are looking at what is identified as a risk factor. Exceptional distribution is a clause used for MSM--it's used for others. Organs from men who have had sex with other men are used in this country, but again we recognize that this is a

Health committee  Thank you very much. On the point as to who should sign to be a donor, I think every Canadian should. You're not automatically excluded as an organ donor based on this high-risk criterion. I think that needs to be clear. On the high-risk behaviours, I think they're very difficu