In the latter regard, it is important to draw the distinction between national and European policy. There has been a tendency in some quarters to address the European Commission proposal as if it were legislating for embryonic stem cell research in Ireland when it is, transparently, doing precisely the opposite. It is, as I have stressed, providing for stringent guidelines and safeguards to underpin concerted European research only in those member states where it is ethical and deemed legal, and then only when the researchers in question have explored all possible alternatives to their planned approach to the research.