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Nov 15, 2011

Patenting hESCs

Do you agree with the decision from the Court of Justice of the European Union to ban patents on research based on the destruction of embryos?

Yes
 
  35.2%
No
 
  59.3%
Undecided
 
  5.6%

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The highest court in Europe has ruled that stem cell research based on the destruction of human embryos is contrary to morality and cannot be patented. Details on the impact of this ruling can be found here. The Court of Justice of the European Union sided with arguments by its advocate general, who earlier this year termed stem cell patents “contrary to ethics and public policy.” Oliver Brüstle, Ph.D., since 2004 has fought to maintain a 1997 patent covering methods for deriving neural cells from hESCs despite a challenge from Greenpeace. After a German court ruled in favor of Greenpeace, Dr. Brüstle appealed, and the case was referred to the Court of Justice. “An invention must be regarded as unpatentable, even if the claims of the patent do not concern the use of human embryos, where the implementation of the invention requires the destruction of human embryos,” the court elaborated in its judgement. Do you agree?

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