Three Italian scientists have lost the first round of what could be a long legal challenge to the decision of their government exclude human embryonic stem cell work from a call for proposals stem cells, even if such research is legal in Italy. On Friday, July 19, just 3 days before the deadline for submission of grant proposals, an administrative court in Rome supported the government's position and dismissed the appeal of scientists.
In Italy, where the Catholic Church has great influence on public policies, researchers willing to work on human embryonic stem cells have struggled. Then came cell scientists waited impatiently and anxiously for a call for proposals under the health and well-being, which recently allocated € 8 million for stem cells. But when the call is released in February, it included a statement that "projects on embryonic stem cells of human origin will be excluded." On 24 June, three researchers have challenged this exclusion by filing a lawsuit in court in Rome Lazio Regional administrative (TAR). They argued that, although Italian law does not allow the embryos are destroyed to create human ES cells, it allows research with already established lines. to exclude such work the call for funds was an unconstitutional violation of academic freedom, scientists have claimed.
But the court in Rome rejected the application of science to cancel the offering, noting that only institutional recipients financing, such as regional councils and universities are allowed to appeal against the government, individual researchers do not have this option
Although he did not express any judgment on the legitimacy of. Government policy, the TAR has made in the preamble to its decision ( ordinanza staminali.doc ) include a sentence stating that the Italian "law poses specific limits to experimentation on human embryos. "
" the verdict seems to inspire an ideology more than the law, "said Elena Cattaneo of the University of Milan, who, with Elisabetta Cerbai of the University of Florence and Silvia Garagna of University of Pavia, filed the complaint. "It is also shocking that individual scientists, we do not have the right to appeal against a public call for proposals that limit our freedom to do research that is legal in our country . "
Italian law that regulates in vitro fertilization (Legge 40) prohibits the creation of new cell lines from embryos for scientific purposes, but does not prevent researchers to study them. " why this law was quoted in the sentence of the TAR is totally uncertain, "said Vittorio Angiolini, Cattaneo's lawyer. Angiolini said Science that the next move will be to appeal to a higher court the Council of State, as he believes that the decision of the TAR is not justified from a legal point of view. But for now, researchers such as Cattaneo are left out of the race for money stem cells from Italy.
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