There is room for a public debate on palliative care across the EU, says COMECE in an Opinion published today. As European society gets older, an increasing number of elderly people require palliative care. The European Commission is currently working on a European framework on Palliative Care. In order to contribute to the discussion around this new Framework, the COMECE Working Group on Ethics in … Continue reading »

As European society gets older, an increasing number of elderly people require palliative care. The COMECE Working Group on Ethics in Research and Healthcare has produced an Opinion on the subject of palliative care, which will be launched on the occasion of this luncheon debate. Set in the context of on-going discussion at EU level, both within the EU institutions and in wider society, the … Continue reading »

The COMECE Working Group on Ethics in Research and Medicine publishes an Opinion on Synthetic Biology. Synthetic Biology involves the engineering of biological components and systems that do not exist in nature and the re-engineering of existing biological elements. Synthetic Biology could soon have multiple industrial applications in the domains of health, energy, materials, environment and agriculture. This new technology therefore raises great expectations and … Continue reading »

Today the Annual Report on Human Rights and Democracy in the World 2014 and the European Union’s Policy in its regard came before the Plenary of the European Parliament for a vote. There is much in the report which those who are committed to fundamental rights and values can only welcome: this is illustrated by the fact that the report clearly calls for the abolition … Continue reading »

Gestational surrogacy is an issue of increasing preoccupation and concern in contemporary political and legal debate across the European Union. Against that background, the COMECE Working Group on Ethics in Research and Medicine has published an “Opinion on Gestational Surrogacy: the question of European and International Rules” , which is presented today, 23 February, at an event hosted by MEP Miroslav Mikolasik at the European … Continue reading »

The European Commission decided on 28 May not to submit any legislative proposal as a reply to the European Citizens Initiative ‘One of Us’. This initiative asked for the ending of the EU financing of activities which presuppose the destruction of human embryos, in particular in the areas of research (projects making use of human embryonic stem cells – hESC) and development cooperation (abortion, either … Continue reading »

The success of the recent citizens initiative “One of Us” finally ought to convince the EU Parliament to end the financing of research activities which presuppose the destruction of human embryos. The EU should not ignore the will of nearly 1.9 million EU citizens who signed this initiative. The European Parliament is about to vote on “Horizon 2020”, the European Union’s new programme for research … Continue reading »