Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

European Court of Justice Rejects Stem-Cell Patents

Posted by timothy on from the but-it's-just-a-mass-of-tissue dept.

ianare writes "The European Court of Justice Friday issued a preliminary opinion that procedures involving human embryonic stem cells are not patentable — even if the process in question does not involve the direct destruction of embryos — because they are tantamount to making industrial use of human embryos, which 'would be contrary to ethics and public policy.'"

3 of 92 comments (clear)

  1. Life is not patentable... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

    ...there is prior art, at least by 4 billion years.

  2. Patents should not be about ethics by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Personally I don't think ethics should play a role in what is patentable. Patentability should depends solely on the technical merits of the application. We do already have various laws, treaties and oaths concerning the ethics of medical research.

    The idea that rejecting a patent somehow sends the signal that something is unacceptable is also a bit strange. Making procedures unpatentable would just make them more widely available wouldn't it?

    1. Re:Patents should not be about ethics by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Personally I don't think ethics should play a role in what is patentable.

      Then you don't understand the nature of ethics. Ethics play a role in everything we do, even by their absence.
      I'm sure that some would argue that the ethical requirement on a court is to apply simple objective tests that would reach a different conclusion to this, but that's very different from saying that ethics don't apply.