BRUSSELS, Belgium, March 30, 2000 (ENS) - The European Parliament voted today to oppose an illegal patent for breeding human embryos. The parliament voted 285 to 133 to approve the resolution which also called for better control of the European Patent Office, the agency that granted the original patent.
"The EU and national governments must now ensure that patents on human genes and parts of the human body are clearly forbidden," said Greenpeace spokesperson Imke Ide.
On February 21, Greenpeace made public the fact that the patent granted last year by the European Patent Office extended to breeding human embryos.
The Patent Office immediately admitted "a mistake" and asked third parties to file a notice of opposition as it cannot revoke a patent itself without outside opposition.
Such notice has so far been filed by Greenpeace and hundreds of individuals and organisations and as well by the German government.
With today's vote, taken on the initiative of MEP Evelyne Gebhardt of Germany, a Socialist, the European Parliament decided to join this opposition.
The European Forum of National Medical Associations and the WHO (region Europe) have criticised patents on human genes.
Ide welcomed the vote, saying, "We appreciate Members of the European Parliament trying to set limits to patenting life as this is about to get out of control."
Greenpeace views the European Parliament's initiative as important because it is likely to affect the ongoing debate on the new European Union patent law.
The law, known as a directive, is due to be discussed and implemented by the national parliaments of the 15 European Union (EU) Member States within the next months.
"All patents of life should be banned," said Ide. "That means humans, animals and plants and their genes. The EU patenting directive is so incomplete and unclear it will only aggravate the chaos over patents. Its implementation must be suspended or the text must be supplemented."
Australia Struggles with Human Cloning Laws
In Australia, a government inquiry yesterday into the scientific, ethical and regulatory considerations surrounding the cloning of human beings spotlighted the fact that laws regulating cloning of human cells differ from state to state. Many lawmakers called for a uniform nationally coordinated enforceable approach to human cloning.
The Liberal government of John Howard should call a halt to all cloning until further work could be done on techniques to avoid use of embryos, Australian Democrats deputy leader Natasha Stott Despoja said today.
"The difference between reproductive cloning to produce identical offspring and therapeutic cloning, which could be used to produce human stem cells, tissues and organs, must be made, Senator Stott Despoja told reporters.
"I believe we should ban reproductive cloning and that we should broadly discuss the implications of therapeutic cloning before we proceed any further," she said.
Supporters of human cloning say the technology is expected to result in medical breakthroughs. They says cloning of early stage human embryos should be allowed for medical research. Opponents say that would open the door to human cloning and create living, "spare-parts" factories.
In January 1998, 19 European nations signed an agreement to prohibit the cloning of humans.
In June 1999, UK government reaffirmed its policy that human reproductive cloning is ethically unacceptable but established an independent, expert advisory group to assess the potential benefits of the use of cloning techniques for therapeutic purposes.
In the United States, two bills to prohibit human cloning were introduced in the House of Representatives in 1999, but neither has been enacted into law. Currently, there is a moratorium on the use of federal funds for human cloning research.
President Bill Clinton said in 1998 that "using somatic cell nuclear transfer cloning techniques to create a human being is untested, unsafe, and morally unacceptable." The President created the National Bioethics Advisory Commission (NBAC) in 1995.
The NBAC recommends against federal funding for the creation of embryos for research by either in vitro fertilization or somatic cell nuclear transfer cloning said NBAC Commissioner Dr. James Childress, testifying on November 4, 1999 before the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services and Education.
However, Dr. Childress said, "It would be acceptable for the federal government to fund research that both derives and uses stem cells from cadaveric fetal tissue and from embryos remaining from fertility treatment, if certain guidelines and safeguards are in place and if there is an appropriate and open system of national oversight and review."
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