Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2000-03-30-Speech-4-041"
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"en.20000330.3.4-041"2
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"Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, our group supports the joint resolution on the offending decision by the European Patent office. I am also delighted that the Group of the European People’s Party (Christian Democrats) and European Democrats – and I want to thank Mr Liese – has adopted Article 1 of our motion for a resolution as an amendment, reaffirming the primacy of the dignity of human life over any considerations of research or profit.
In their defence the officers of the Patent Office refer to the language problem. But the English wording of the patent undermines that explanation because Article 11 explicitly mentions that the term ‘animal’ includes all animal cells, especially of mammalian species, including human cells. So that seems to contradict the linguistic explanations given by the Office and the fear remains that the mistake is not just a technical one, as they apparently want to make out.
An inquiry to identify responsibility for such a mistake is essential, sanctions must be applied and, above all, adequate measures must be taken by the Member States of the European Patents Convention and the Office itself to prevent such incidents recurring. But it is not just a matter of applying the legal rules in force in the Union, or indeed those of the Office itself.
It is a matter of defending the dignity of the human being, from conception to natural death. We know very well that cloning is an attack on that dignity, especially when it involves embryonic reduction in the secrecy of laboratories. We know the creation of clones to provide healthy cells for the benefit of the original is an affront to that dignity.
Each person is unique; there is something sacred in each human being. The contempt for human beings, and life generally, that now exists can only feed the worst excesses of irresponsible scientists. It is a good thing that, at least for the space of a short debate, we have remembered everyone’s fundamental right to their own unique identity."@en1
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