 Dear friends, Size does not matter. At least when it comes to the human being: For the first time, the European Court of Justice (ECJ, seated in Luxembourg) clarifies, in a manner that is binding for the 27 Member States, that human life begins at conception, and that it is deserving legal protection. This sets an end to all attempts of saying that the blastocyst, the embryo, or the fetus is "not yet" human. The ruling “Brüstle, C34/10" directly concerns only the issue of patentability. It is not possible to patent any procedure which directly destroys a human embryo, or which required a destruction beforehand. The ECJ explained that an even a cell that can develop into a complete human being is a human embryo. This certainly has wide implications for issues such as abortion, IVF, stem cell research in general, egg cell donation, and so on. This is a reason to rejoice for all Christians in Europe, as we are a strong voice for human dignity in protecting the weakest and the most helpless!
United in prayer for a Christian Europe, your Europe for Christ-Team in Vienna
- * - * - * - * - * - * - * - * - * - * - * - * - * - * - * - * - * -
On those grounds, the Court (Grand Chamber) hereby rules: 1. Article 6(2)(c) of Directive 98/44/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 6 July 1998 on the legal protection of biotechnological inventions must be interpreted as meaning that: – any human ovum after fertilisation, any non-fertilised human ovum into which the cell nucleus from a mature human cell has been transplanted, and any non-fertilised human ovum whose division and further development have been stimulated by parthenogenesis constitute a ‘human embryo’; – it is for the referring court to ascertain, in the light of scientific developments, whether a stem cell obtained from a human embryo at the blastocyst stage constitutes a ‘human embryo’ within the meaning of Article 6(2)(c) of Directive 98/44.
2. The exclusion from patentability concerning the use of human embryos for industrial or commercial purposes set out in Article 6(2)(c) of Directive 98/44 also covers the use of human embryos for purposes of scientific research, only use for therapeutic or diagnostic purposes which are applied to the human embryo and are useful to it being patentable.
3. Article 6(2)(c) of Directive 98/44 excludes an invention from patentability where the technical teaching which is the subject-matter of the patent application requires the prior destruction of human embryos or their use as base material, whatever the stage at which that takes place and even if the description of the technical teaching claimed does not refer to the use of human embryos.
For the whole document follow the link and click „C-34/10“ next to „judgement“:
|
|
|
