Kay Patterson (Victoria, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I did actually indicate that there are a number of ways of approaching it. The intent is not different, but we have had a different way of approaching it. The overall aim is to ensure that people who have embryos which are not deemed suitable for implantation are not wasted but able to be used. Currently, when you are doing embryo stem cell research you cannot use those embryos. They are embryos that have genetic errors in them and could be very useful for people developing stem cell lines of known genetic diseases that you can identify in embryos. Some you cannot use; you have to wait until they are expressed in the individual. We have not identified genetically every disease, but where you can do that through PIGD—preimplantation genetic diagnosis—it is enabling those embryos to be used. At the moment, you cannot. I think the intent is the same, but it is a different approach.