"The promotion of cloning and the use of stem cells from human embryos for scientific research goes on Comece is a problem that has been regularly disputed in Europe in the last few years, because of the support it has received through the European framework programme for research". As to the draft directive that is being prepared by the European Commission regarding organ donation for transplants, Comece points out that "this too raises some essential ethical issues, especially the donors’ free will and the principle of not selling the human body and its parts". In light of the meaning of the bioethical issues for EU politics, in 1996 Comece set up this Bioethical Reflection Group to examine bioethical implications for the European Union and its institutions, as well as to inform the bishops who are members of Comece and their Bishops Conferences. The Group is composed of experts in theology, ethics and philosophy, law, medicine and pharmacology.
