EU court: Stem cell processes unpatentable if embryos destroyed

Europe's highest court ruled on Tuesday that any process which involves removal of a stem cell from a human embryo and entails the destruction of that embryo cannot be patented, a judgment that could have deep ramifications for medical research.

The ruling by the European Court of Justice concerned a method invented by Oliver Bruestle of the University of Bonn for converting human embryonic stem cells into nerve cells. The court's decision had been seen as critical for the development of stem cells as treatments for a range of diseases from Parkinson's to blindness.

"The use of human embryos for therapeutic or diagnostic purposes which are applied to the human embryo and are useful to it is patentable," the ECJ said in a statement. "But their use for purposes of scientific research is not patentable."

It added: "A process which involves removal of a stem cell from a human embryo at the blastocyst stage, entailing the destruction of that embryo, cannot be patented."

Stem cell scientists had feared a decision to uphold the legal opinion of Advocate General Yves Bot, which was handed down in March, could hobble research and development into an area that is expected to provide many 21st-century medicines.