Politics
Monday December 1, 2008
EU Rejects Patent that “Necessarily Involves the Use and Destruction of Human Embryos”
TODAY'S HEADLINES
E-MAIL
PRINT
By Hilary White
December 1, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The EU’s patent office has ruled that under the provisions of the European Patent Convention (EPC), it cannot offer a patent for the so-called “WARF/Thomson stem cell application” on the grounds that it would involve the destruction of human embryos. The application is for a method for obtaining embryonic stem cell cultures from primates, including humans, and was filed by the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation (WARF) in 1995.
The patent office board of appeal ruled that it is not possible to grant a patent for an invention which necessarily involves the use and destruction of human embryos. The EPC does not allow patenting inventions whose commercial exploitation would be contrary to public order or morality.
Wesley Smith, an American lawyer and writer on bioethics issues, said that the decision is remarkable in that it is the first time there has been an indication from the EU that the moral status of the human embryo is in question.
While a ruling from the patent office does not outlaw the use of embryos in research, Smith writes that it will “send a chill to those who would use embryos commercially.”
“In any event,” Smith wrote, “let us hear no more about religious zealots imposing their will on rational modernists. Europe is as secular a culture as you will find in the world.”
Read related LifeSiteNews.com coverage:
Germany Drops Opposition to EU Embryo Research Funding
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2006/jul/06072407.html
Back to TopLatest Headlines
- "Manhattan Declaration" Embodies U.S. Christian Pushback against Abortion, Same-Sex "Marriage"
- Hoffman Loses Final Tally of NY-23 Race; Alleges ACORN Tampering and Fraud
- Abortion Activist Judge Hamilton Confirmed with Help of Ten Republican Senators
- CDC Reverses Gardasil Vaccine Requirement for Immigrants
- Germany Faces Economic Downturn with Plummeting Birth Rate and Aging Population
- CCHD in Archdiocese of Chicago Says it is Working to Fix Problems
- Rejection of Washington DC Marriage Referendum Challenged With Legal Suit
- Obama-Supporting Homosexual Activist to Out Sexually Involved Priests Unless they Support Gay 'Marriage
- Austrian Catholic Bishops Issue Bland Response to Govt's Homosexual Partnership Bill
- Interim Report on Catholic Sex-Abuse Says "Homosexual Identity" Not a Predictor of Sex Abuse
- LSN NewsBytes - US Health Care Reform
- LSN NewsBytes - Climate Change/Global Warming
- Pro-Abortion Lawmakers Shower Praise on Senate Bill's Phony Abortion Compromise
- 59 Bishops Contributed Financially to Maine Bishop's Effort to Oppose Maine Same-Sex "Marriage" Law
Most Read this Week
- Largest U.S. Homosexual Publisher Shuts Down, Closing Major Gay Newspapers
- Italian Mayors Order Crufixes Put in Classrooms in Revolt against European Court Ruling
- EWTN's Arroyo Hosts Reform CCHD Reps Who Reveal Shocking Evidence Against USCCB Anti-Poverty Arm
- Nat'l Organization for Marriage Responds to Miss California "Sex Tape" Scandal
- Obama Evades Questioning on Stupak Amendment in FOX Interview
- French Judge Finds Hospital Guilty of "Unreasonable Obstinacy" in Saving Newborn's Life
- EU Leaders to Choose President today in Secret "Soviet Style" Meetings
- Hoffman "Unconcedes" Battle for NY-23: Recount Provides Hope for "Miracle" Victory
- CCHD Responds to Reform Movement
- White House Advisor Indicates Obama Will Work to Abolish Pro-Life Health Amendment
MORE NEWS: 
LifeSiteNews.com Home Page Last 10 Days Archives Special Reports
Copyright © LifeSiteNews.com. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivatives License. You may republish this article or portions of it without request provided the content is not altered and it is clearly attributed to "LifeSiteNews.com". Any website publishing of complete or large portions of original LifeSiteNews articles MUST additionally include a live link to www.LifeSiteNews.com. The link is not required for excerpts. Republishing of articles on LifeSiteNews.com from other sources as noted is subject to the conditions of those sources.