Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2001-11-29-Speech-4-014"
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"Mr President, it is disappointing that we are only now able to deal with the important report of the temporary committee on human genetics. The Fiori report provides an ethical framework for genetic research, but, unfortunately, this is partly shutting the stable door after the horse has bolted, since the financing of this research is established in the sixth framework programme.
I appeal to the Council, where this subject has still to be dealt with, to use a well-considered ethical framework. This would mean, at any rate, that research which is banned in one or more Member States, such as research with human embryos, would never be eligible for Community funding.
The Fiori report gives a good overview of the ethical and other dilemmas that this research on human genetics entails. The temporary committee has put a year’s hard work into it and, in general, I am satisfied with the report before us. The report was radically modified by the rapporteur after revision. That was certainly necessary, but I still find something lacking. Not a particular topic, because all topics relating to human genetics are tackled in this report, but nevertheless …
My Christian philosophy sees this world with all its plants, animals and human beings as God’s creation. A creation which God imbued with numerous possibilities. As a result, man is able to find solutions to problems. I believe that man must search for therapies and treatments for disease and that he is entitled to find them.
I refuse, however, to believe that research into the curing of diseases must involve the use of human embryos. An embryo is a potential human being, contains all the ingredients necessary to become a person and is one of God’s creatures and as such deserving of protection from the very beginning. To repeat the words of the philosopher Immanuel Kant: “Act in such a way that you use man partly as an end and never as simply a means”. And if human embryos are used for research and are destroyed in the process, that is precisely what is happening. This applies both to embryos left over from in-vitro fertilisation and to embryos produced specially for research purposes.
We were astonished to hear reports that human embryos have been cloned in the United States. This instrumentalisation of incipient human life is morally completely unacceptable. Fortunately, Commissioner Busquin followed President Bush in condemning this experiment. The Fiori report rightly calls for a ban on this therapeutic cloning.
Apart from that, I have serious misgivings about the exaggerated expectations aroused by some researchers and also by some of us, not only among healthy citizens, but worse, still, among patients. If this type of research ever finds therapeutic application at all, it will not be for at least another one to two decades.
But what of the splendid therapies that can be developed with the aid of stem cells? Should we not develop and use them? I believe so, but again, not at the expense of human embryos. Hence it is a miracle, and I see it as a blessing from God, that adult stem cells have been discovered. These stem cells, which are found in the umbilical cord, fat tissue and brain tissue, can be differentiated and also form a rich diversity of tissue types. So let us put all our resources, expertise and not least funding into developing therapies with the aid of this promising adult stem cell research.
I congratulate rapporteur Fiori on the fruit of his labours presently before us, and hope that it emerges unscathed from this session."@en1
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