Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2003-11-17-Speech-1-064"
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"en.20031117.6.1-064"2
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"Mr President, I welcome the remarkable work and flexible, astute approach of our rapporteur, Mr Liese, who, from a somewhat rigid starting position, from strong ethical principles, has endeavoured to achieve, with the support not only of myself but of the entire PPE-DE Group, as balanced a compromise as possible on a very sensitive subject, the use of human embryos and human embryonic stem cells in research projects under the Sixth Framework Programme. As a research scientist, of course, I can only support the progress of science, in the primary interest of patients who have, for years, been placing their hope in new technologies, as has been said, which may provide a cure for or control debilitating, sometimes irreversible diseases such as Parkinson’s disease, spinal lesions which can cause paraplegia, tetraplegia, Alzheimer’s’ disease and so on.
That is why I want to thank Commissioner Busquin for his prolific efforts to achieve what is, without a doubt, a difficult compromise. I have to say that, recently, at the specific request of the Italian Minister for Scientific Research, the Italian bioethics committee, chaired by Professor Francesco D’Agostino concluded that it was ethically legitimate to remove stem cells for therapeutic purposes from embryos which can no longer be implanted.
The decision that we will be called upon to take in this Chamber only concerns the funding of the Sixth Framework Programme and, therefore, relates to a fairly short period of time. However, I have good reasons for thinking that the amendment adopted by the Committee on Industry, External Trade, Research and Energy, which provides for the funding of research using supernumerary cells, will not be unanimously endorsed by the Council, with the risk of a minority block and the extension of the current moratorium. This would be even more damaging to public research in Europe, which would remain in its current state of uncertainty and lack of regulation.
This is why I drew up a new compromise proposal, in order to find some common ground between scientific demands and ethical principles: indeed, my proposal – put forward by the PPE-DE Group, moreover – on the one hand, bans the funding of research projects which provide for the use of human supernumerary embryos, and, on the other, allows research scientists to use in experiments stem cells and stem cell lines from human embryos which are already available in laboratories and which were taken from supernumerary embryos before 27 June 2002.
I feel that, only in this way, can we make it possible for research scientists to proceed with preliminary comparative investigations, which are essential for the purposes of the future use – or non-use – of embryonic stem cells. I therefore hope that reason will prevail over emotion and prejudice in tomorrow’s vote in this Chamber, in the higher interest of
patients’ health."@en1
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