John Gerard Hanafin (Fianna Fail)

I would welcome the opportunity to debate stem cell research although it is not a subject that makes people jump out of bed early in the morning to run down to the breakfast table and chat with the family about. Notwithstanding this, it is a very important issue and one about which there is much misunderstanding and misrepresentation. Today's issue of the Irish Independent at best misunderstood and at worst misrepresented yesterday's Oireachtas committee meeting where stem cell research was welcomed. What is not welcomed is research on embryos, a point on which there is cross-party agreement between Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil. Embryos are the smallest members of the human family. I would never support research on human embryos. Other opportunities are available through placental, neo-natal, bone marrow stem cell and adult stem cell research. These are the stem cell areas in which progress is currently occurring in medicine. Stem cell research should be welcomed in the same way as the discovery of penicillin.