Green Party Senator and Dublin candidate for the European elections, Senator Deirdre de Burca, has welcomed the recent decision of the Enlarged Board of Appeal of the European Patent Office to reject the WARF/Thomson stem cell patent application. The Board of Appeal has ruled that European patent law prohibits the patenting of human stem cell cultures whose preparation involves the destruction of human embryos.

Senator Deirdre de Burca said: “I wholeheartedly welcome the landmark ruling from the European Patent Office’s Enlarged Board of Appeal. The Board of Appeal has underlined the ethical values in patent law and has said no to the industrial use of human embryos through patents. The Board makes it clear that such patents are not in conformity with EU patent law and therefore cannot be granted.

“At last the European Patent Office has taken a clear position in this important question. The decision is a turning point, since several patents for the use of human embryos have already been granted. Human dignity has rightfully been put first.

“Following a European Greens’ initiative in 2005, a European Parliament resolution called on the European Patent Office to prohibit patents on stem cells, which cause the destruction of human embryos. Directive 98/44 clearly forbids patents on the industrial use of human embryos, yet industry has tried time and time again to push them through.

“Now it has made this welcome decision on human embryos, I call on the European Patent Office to review its approach on human genes. I would echo the call of the European Parliament for a significant limit of scope of patents on human genes.”

Filed under:
Press Release by Deirdre