Will human embryonic stem cell researchers be left without patents?
European Court of Justice against patents for stem cell treatment
Dmitry Tselikov, CompulentaThe European Court of Justice has announced a preliminary ruling according to which procedures related to the use of human embryonic stem cells (CESCS) cannot be patented.
The document was prepared by the general counsel of the court, Yves Bot.
Researchers who expected a less conservative solution are amazed to the core. And they can be understood.
The case was submitted to the European Court of Justice by the Federal Supreme Court of Germany in November 2009 after a complaint by the environmental organization Greenpeace against Oliver Brustle, director of the Institute of Reconstructive Neuroscience at the University of Bonn.
Oliver Brustle. A fighter with reaction or a hooch from science? (Photo by WDR.)Back in 1991, the scientist was going to patent a method for obtaining nerve cells from cESC for the treatment of diseases of the brain and spinal cord.
He could not use it because of twenty years of legal discussion. Opponents of the researcher believed that it was unethical to issue such a patent.
Yves Bot notes that pluripotent stem cells cannot be equated with embryos, because they can no longer develop into a human being. Nevertheless, it is impossible to ignore the presence of an embryo as a source of such cells, according to him. Otherwise, it will lead to the creation and destruction of human embryos on an industrial scale, which contradicts the ethical norms of modern society.
The preliminary conclusion will now be considered by thirteen judges of the Grand Chamber of the European Court. A final decision is expected within a few months. It will not be binding, but it will not be able to affect the legislation of EU countries.
States have different attitudes to the problem. For example, the UK and Sweden allow experiments with CESCS, even if they have not yet lost the ability to become a human in the case of transplantation into a female body. Germany allows you to work only with imported material created no later than May 2007. Such cells can only turn into individual organs, but not into a full-fledged person. And in progressive Ireland to this day there are no legislative norms in this regard.
The legislation of the European Union regarding patents for biotechnologies very vaguely formulates issues related to the cESC. The drafters of the rules are unclear, even when it comes to cells obtained from spare embryos that are created for in vitro fertilization and are still subject to destruction.
Prepared by Nature News: European Court of Justice rejects stem-cell patents