David Cliche, Quebec’s minister of state for science and technology, has unveiled new guidelines on ethical research in which the creation and use of stem cells extracted from human embryos which result in the death of the embryos is "forbidden." Moreover, the ban is subject to all research including that which is privately funded.

This puts the province far ahead of many other national and international governments in resisting powerful corporate and ideological pressures to allow socially dangerous and immoral "research."

Cliche dismissed a possible conflict with upcoming federal legislation on the matter which proposes to allow embryonic stem cell research. The guidelines also forbid all human cloning, including cloning supposedly for research purposes only. The creation of animal-human hybrids is also forbidden.

The government promoted research into adult stem cells. Many breakthroughs in the area of adult stem cells have come from Quebec.