Despite the European Court of Justice maintaining the non-patentability of human embryos in a recent decision (Greenpeace vs Brustle, C 34/10), the European Commission continues funding embryonic stem cell research.
Under the name “Horizon 2020”, the European Commission (EC) recently presented to the European Parliament (EP) its next Framework Program for Research and Innovation, which provides €80 billion in funding from 2014 to 2020 for scientific research - including embryonic stem cell research.
However, as EDW previously reported, on October 18 the European Court of Justice (ECJ) in Greenpeace vs Brüstle, unequivocally defined a human embryo as any fertilized ovum capable of developing into a human being. As a consequence, the ECJ established the non-patentability of any technique - such as embryonic stem cell research - that derives from the destruction of a human embryo.
The European Commission’s support for Horizon 2020, however, suggests that it has ignored this decision. Instead of being coherent with the legally binding judgment of the ECJ, the Commission and the European Parliament continue to include controversial and unethical research in their budgets.
Surprisingly, the European Commission also wants to lower the ethical standards of its Horizon 2020 program by excluding a prior commitment (§12) that was part of the last Framework Program for Research (2007-2013).
This stated that the Commission "will not submit to the Regulatory Committee proposals for projects which include research activities which destroy human embryos, including for the procurement of stem cells". This is now being reconsidered.
Besides the ECJ’s judgment and the European Commission’s own ethical guidelines, there is a consensus of many MEPs of different political backgrounds around unethical research. Just before the Commission presented its Horizon 2020 research program to the Parliament on November 30, MEPs from different countries and political groups urged the Commission not to finance research with embryos and embryonic stem cells. The MEPs insisted that EU funding efforts should concentrate on ethically unchallenging alternatives like adult stem cells and stem cells from the umbilical cord.
There is also a wide consensus among European citizens. The human embryo is considered to bear life by the vast majority of the EU population – and, thus, by those who finance the Commission’s research budget through taxes – and conducting research with embryos remains a highly contentious issue, as a recent poll by the Eurobarometer Survey revealed.
From a practical point of view, too, biomedical companies have lost interest in embryonic stem cell research because of the lack of practical results and investment losses. Just recently, the US company Geron Corp. gave up its long-standing hopes for embryonic stem cell research and has stopped all funding in the field.
In conclusion, it is clearer than ever before that embryonic stem cell research is unsafe, uncertain, impractical and immoral. The European Commission and the European Parliament thus have an obligation to take into account the massive evidence -- and the opinion of the overwhelming majority of European citizens – and strive to be coherent with European jurisdiction.
European Dignity Watch urges the European Parliament to amend the proposed Framework Program for Research and Innovation, Horizon 2020, and live up to the ethical standards established by the ECJ.
