Members of the House Of Assembly debated the Longevity and Regenerative Therapies Bill last week. The bill seeks to establish The Bahamas as a world leader in treatments such as stem cell therapy, immunotherapy and regenerative therapy.

In his contribution to the bill Leader of the Opposition, the Hon. Michael Pintard questioned the consultation process. He said, “we thought in preparation for this bill that we should ask the medical professionals what they’re thoughts were and other stakeholders. And to our surprise we found out that the Bahamas Medical Council was not consulted on this matter and so the question would be why would it be important for the Medical Council of The Bahamas to be consulted. And so I was careful, we were careful, to ask the Minister why weren’t various key stakeholders involved in the discussion while you were considering repealing the old bill and introducing the new. One would have thought the person who participated in 2012, those that are still around, which is the vast majority of them would have been consulted.”

Minister of Health and Wellness, the Hon. Michael Darville responded by saying, “the bulk of the criticism on the side opposite is that we didn’t consult enough and that’s understandable because consultation could go on for twenty years. But we believe that we have lied the facts on the table and we are pivoting from a point not something new but something that has been around for a decade. Now I know when we first brought this bill I was with the Christie administration and I played an active role in this bill as well.”

The post HOA: Longevity And Regenerative Bill appeared first on ZNS BAHAMAS.