Brussels The European Commission has rejected a request by pro-life organizations block E.Ü. funding for research using embryonic stem cells causing many scientists to breathe a sigh of relief. The commission said that the existing rules in the framework of the scientific program of the European Union, 2020, are appropriate and will not change.
Last month, the citizens' initiative called One of Us has asked the commission to stop fundraising in which embryos are destroyed. Because the initiative has reached 1 million signatures verified from seven or more Member States, the Commission had to formally consider the proposal.
"We have engaged with this citizens' initiative and gave his demand full attention," said the research Commissioner Máire Geoghegan-Quinn in a statement today . " However, Member States and the European Parliament agreed to continue seeking funding in this area for a reason. Embryonic stem cells are unique and offer the potential to save the lives of treatments, clinical trials already underway. "
Commission the answer is" very wise, "said Tullio Pozzan, director of the Department of Biomedical Sciences at the National Research Council in Italy and member of the medical committee of science in Europe. Demand for One of Us "was not based on science but on philosophical or religious" ones, he said. stem cells should be pursued even if human therapy is not currently practice Pozzan added.
Robin Buckle, head of regenerative medicine at the medical Research Council in the UK, also welcomed the decision of the commission. "It is essential that the Commission approved its existing support in this area," Buckle said, "that new restrictions could have been very damaging to science and European competitiveness. "
the relevant regulations between member states will E.Ü. permissive, eg Belgium and the United Kingdom of an outright ban on research using human embryonic stem cells in Poland and Lithuania. At the E.Ü. level, research is eligible for Horizon 2020 funding only if it is legal in the country where it takes place and spent a scientific and ethical review. In addition, scientists receiving E.Ü. money can use leftover embryos granted by couples from in vitro fertilization procedures, but are not allowed to create embryonic stem cells for their research.
Proponents of a petition we say that this provision is too liberal. For support, they cite a decision in 2011 by the European Court of Justice in Brüstle v. Greenpeace , they say "indicates that fertilization is the beginning of human life and in the name of human dignity excludes the patentability of any procedure that involves or necessitates the destruction of a human embryo. "
But the commission said that this decision does not concern the financing of science. "[T] he power was limited to the patentability of biotechnological inventions and does not deal with the question of whether such a search can be performed and whether it can be financed," the commission argued in another declaration of today.
Under the previous EU research program from 07 to 2013, the EU spent € 156.7 million on 27 cooperation projects in health research involving the use of human embryonic stem cells. The total amount 2.6% of all E.Ü. spending on health research over this period.
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