Type: Opinions of Advocate General

Authority: European Authorities: Euopean Union' Court of Justice

Date: 03/10/2011

Subject: Advocate general proposes to the Court to precise, interpreting directive 98/44/EC on the legal protection of biotechnological inventions, that the concept of a human embryo applies from the fertilisation stage to the initial totipotent cells and to the entire ensuing process of the development and formation of the human body. Taken individually, pluripotent embryonic stem cells are not included in that concept because they do not in themselves have the capacity to develop into a human being. An invention must be excluded from patentability where the application of the technical process for which the patent is filed necessitates the prior destruction of human embryos or their use as base material, even if the description of that process does not contain any reference to the use of human embryos. The exception to the non-patentability of uses of human embryos for industrial or commercial purposes concerns only inventions for therapeutic or diagnostic purposes which are applied to the human embryo and are useful to it.

Parties: Brüstle

Classification: Dignity - Art. 3 Bioethics

Text