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EU to Continue Stem-Cell Research Funding

Posted on: Monday, 24 July 2006, 12:00 CDT

By JAN SLIVA

BRUSSELS, Belgium - The European Union will continue financing human stem cell research, ministers from the bloc's 25 member states decided Monday, overcoming opposition from a group of mostly Catholic countries.

The funding - to come from the EU's $65 billion research budget for 2007-2013 - will be available only in those EU countries that allow embryonic stem cell research, and under strict conditions including a ban on research aimed at human cloning for reproductive purposes or intended to modify the genetic heritage of human beings.

In a concession to the eight opposing countries, EU money will not be used to finance research activities directly intended to destroy human embryos. However, EU funding of "subsequent steps" involving human embryonic stem cells would be allowed, the ministers agreed.

"The financing ... from EU funds is possible, but subject to very tight ethical rules and procedures," said Jukka Pekkarinen, head of the Finance Ministry's economics department.

The new rules will be in place until 2013.

Poland, Austria, Malta, Slovakia and Lithuania voted against the updated rules, all for "ethical and moral" reasons, they said. But Germany, Italy and Slovenia changed their stance at the last moment and backed the proposal.

Human stem cell research in the EU is financed largely from national budgets in those countries that allow it, and a decision to ban EU funding would have had little impact on day-to-day operations, though experts said it would have sent a chill over the European stem cell research community and gone against the spirit of scientific cooperation.

Most European laboratories already work with adult stem cells.

Cells taken from human embryos are uniquely versatile, and many hope that one day they could help treat Alzheimer's, type 1 diabetes, spinal cord injuries and other health problems.

But Roman Catholic teaching opposes scientific research on human embryonic stem cells, as the embryo is killed when its stem cells are extracted.

Less than a week ago, U.S. President George W. Bush vetoed legislation that would have increased federal spending on human stem cell research in the United States.

Source: Associated Press/AP Online

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