A step backwards” “

In May this year the European Commissioner for research, Philippe Busquin, will submit to the European Parliament a proposal to fund research projects on stem cells that entail the use of frozen human embryos not destined for reproduction and less that fourteen days old. The proposal would put an end to the moratorium that currently prevents the Commission from funding projects that involve the use of surplus frozen embryos, otherwise destined to be destroyed (of which there are some 300/400,000 in Europe). To this end Busquin, at the request of the Fifteen, presented a document that reviews the situation on research of stem cells from human embryos and that will form the basis of reflection for the institutional and scientific round table scheduled to be held in Brussels on 24 April, with the task of redefining EU guidelines on the matter. After the phase of consultation in May, the proposal, if approved by the European Parliament, will, in the course of the six months’ Italian presidency of the EU, pass to the examination of the Council of ministers of the Fifteen, which will have to rule on the proposal by the end of the year. We present below a reflection by the moral theologian Marco Doldi. So, Europe seems intent on changing route as regards the use of stem cells removed from human embryos. For the time being a ban on such use exists, but things could change in future. What is now being proposed is to permit the funding of research projects on frozen embryos that have not passed the threshold of two weeks of life. This is a step backwards in research and also in ethical conduct. Already last year the authoritative New England Journal of Medicine published data that scientifically demonstrate the validity of the theory, according to which even in an adult the stem cells, i.e. those that are not yet specialized and that are able to reproduce themselves, giving rise to a differentiated cell, are absolutely malleable. The scientists of the University of Texas have thus repudiated the idea that the only source of cells capable of generating any kind of tissue – and hence regenerating damaged organs – is that of embryos, and that it is therefore obligatory to use – and then eliminate! – foetuses for the cure of numerous diseases or to reconstruct damaged tissues, as in the case of bone marrow. How is it possible, therefore, for Europe not to take into consideration the new scientific findings and to reverse its policy, with its intention of funding what it has hitherto disapproved? Let us recall that the “European Convention on human rights and biomedicine” (Oviedo 1996) expressly requires that research on embryos guarantee them adequate protection. And yet it is clear that the removal of stem cells involves the destruction of embryos! What therefore lies behind this volte face? No doubt the problem of frozen embryos, forgotten by their biological parents: what is to be done with them? There’s been no shortage of those who have proposed that they be used as biological material for experimentation. This overlooks the unequivocal fact that a zygote, or fertilized egg, the fruit of conception, is a human being in the first phases of its development and that the respect due to a human person should therefore be accorded to it. Moreover, it is not unduly hazardous to suppose that, behind the work of the seminar in Brussels that will serve to redefine EU guidelines in the field of research on stem cells, there are the powerful economic interests of pharmaceutical companies or centres of experimentation, interested in reaching the most promising result by the shortest possible route. We hope that the Fifteen ministers, who will have to rule on the proposal for the use of stem cells removed from embryos, act in full liberty and that their one concern be that of safeguarding the dignity of each human being from the very moment of its conception.