How can we deal with patients in state of post-coma unresponsiveness? What are the prospects for human enhancement by technological means? How can we fight organ trafficking and transplant tourism?
Human embryonic stem cell research is no longer patentable in the EU, it is ethically problematic and therefore is not a consensual research field among Member States and EU citizens.
COMECE welcomes the Judgement of the European Court of Justice (ECJ). In the Case Oliver Brüstle v Greenpeace, the ECJ, in a preliminary ruling, decided that destructive research on human embryo cannot be patented.
Alternative methods to animal testing could include tests based on the use of human embryonic stems cells. Member States, according to a Draft EU Directive, may be obliged to apply such tests.
