Reason above all” “

“What counts in a forum for dialogue like this is above all reason. It’s a question of developing a rational dialogue on such questions as human dignity, the right to life, the substantial equality between people, the scope and limits of research, the defence of the environment, and so on”, explained CARLO CASINI , president of the Italian Movement for Life. He is one of the 15 members of the European Group for Ethics in Science and New Technologies (EGE), renewed in its composition by the President of the European Commission, José Manuel Durao Barroso. The first session of the advisory body took place on Tuesday 25 October. Apart from Casini, the following sit on the European Group on Ethics in Science and New Technologies: Paula Martinho da Silva (Portugal), Linda Nielsen (Denmark), Diána Bánáti (Hungary); Anne Cambon-Thomsen (France), Jozef Glasa (Slovakia), Julian Kinderlerer (United Kingdom), Krzysztof Marczewski (Poland), Pere Puigdomenèch Rosell (Estonia), Emmanuel Agius (Malta), Rafael Capurro (Germany), Inez de Beaufort (Netherlands), Hille Haker (Germany), Göran Hermerén (Sweden), and Günter Virt (Austria). The Swede Goran Hermeren was elected chairman of the group; he will have the Portuguese Paula Martinho da Silva as his vice-chairperson. The next meeting of the EGE will be in London on 16-17 November. It meets on a monthly basis. The first question on the order of the day is the new technologies applied to medicine, followed by that of research on stem cells. FIFTEEN EXPERTS FROM ALL OVER THE CONTINENT. EGE is an “independent, pluralist and interdisciplinary” committee. Its job is to furnish opinions to the Executive with a view to new EU Directives or the implementation of EU policies that have significant ethical implications. The members of the EGE, whose term expires in 2009, include experts from various countries and with various fields of expertise: three jurists, six scientists and six professors in the field of the social sciences. “I have already dealt with these issues at the European level – explains Casini to SIR –, since I was an MEP in Strasbourg for fifteen years and delegate of the European People’s Party for bioethics. Once that term of office had expired, I continued along the same line within the Movement for Life, in my role as university professor, and, latterly, as member of the National Committee for Bioethics”. “CULTURAL UNEASE” ABOUT BIOETHICS. “I am convinced – says Casini – that there is a kind of cultural and political unease at the European level whenever issues of bioethics are tackled, not only from the economic viewpoint (given that, for example, biotechnologies may produce wealth). If we go beyond the consumerist and hedonistic aspect, complex positions emerge: people of various provenance and formation show close attention in and deep sensitivity to these issues, and the dialogue between believers and non-believers becomes more coherent”. And he continues: “The issues that fall within the European Commission’s remit, in which EGE may be called to play an advisory role, are numerous: we may think of research on stem cells, animal cloning, the protection of personal data, and the so-called ‘genetic identity card’. With the advance of scientific research these cases will become ever more numerous and of extreme importance in the life of each one of us”. a discussed theme. The theme of bioethics has been the object of numerous cases of European political debate in recent years. Among the main ones, we may recall Directive 44 voted by the European Parliament and Council in 1998 on “Legal protection of biotechnological inventions”. But these questions have cropped up again within the EU institutions only in recent days. The European Parliament, meeting in Strasbourg, adopted a Resolution that had the support of all the political groups on 26 September; it was finally adopted with 338 votes in favour, 272 against and 35 abstentions. The text reaffirms the importance of biotechnologies, but emphasises “the legal uncertainty as far as the ‘patentability’ of some of their applications are concerned”. The EP asked that a “ban on patenting any form of human cloning be confirmed”. The Parliament also expressed concern about projects for the selection of the gender of human beings. Debate and Resolution – the latter considered a success by some politicians and observers of Christian inspiration – had been preceded by the second Report of the Commission on “developments and implications of the patenting rights in the sector of biotechnologies and genetic engineering”. This Report proposed to “formulate observations on the scope to be attributed to patents concerning sequences or partial sequences of genes isolated from the human body” and the patentability of human stem cells and lines obtained from them”.