In contrast, there have been continuing scientific advances in fields of research involving alternative stem cells (adult, derived from umbilical cord or induced pluripotent) which present better prospects for clinical applications; or have indeed already demonstrated widespread clinical results (and do not raise any special ethical problems). Today’s Nobel Prize rewards such efforts to discover alternatives to hESC in mature, specialised cells that once reprogrammed become immature cells capable of developing into any tissues of the body.
Furthermore, research on hESC can no longer be patented since the recent ruling of the European Court of Justice in the case of Greenpeace v. Brüstle. The Court clearly defines the human embryo as a human ovum, as soon as fertilized, or as the product of cloning, and confirms that biotechnological inventions using hESC cannot be patented.
Despite all these new scientific developments and legal decisions, the European Commission decided to leave open the possibility of funding research on hESC within the Horizon 2020 Research Programme which is currently under discussion in the EU Council and the European Parliament.
COMECE requests the EU institutions to adopt a rule laying down that any research entailing the destruction of human embryos or using human embryonic stem cells shall not be funded under Horizon 2020.
