Patchwork regulations
Karin Hollricher comments on the principles of stem cell research recently set up by experts of the so-called Hinxton Group.
It's no more than flattering to describe laws and rules governing human stem cell research as a holey patchwork. Research being done in Britain or Singapore could easily be forbidden in Germany or Japan and may be possible in the USA or Israel. A considerable number of countries, such as Portugal, are still working on regulations. You think that's confusing? You're right.
Even specialists in the field cannot explain to you all the laws that are applied in a certain country - providing the country already has a stem cell law. Many don't have any yet and are developing stem cell policies without taking into account what is being done elsewhere. Being concerned about this situation, which is also prejudicial to international collaborations, the so-called Hinxton Group has set up some universal principles that should guide stem cell research worldwide.
In March some sixty people from 14 countries met in Hinxton, England - scientists, medical doctors, philosophers, lawyers, scientific journal editors, federal regulators and others. After three days of discussion they came up with their statements. Most of them are self-evident and should be taken for granted, i.e. that stem cell research should seek to minimize harm to people, that scientists should be informed about valid laws etc.
However, between the lines they call on the governments to change rules that they judge to be too strict. The statement says: "Laws or regulations ...ought to be flexible, so as to accomodate rapid scientific advance." Can ethical standards - the basis of all stem cell laws - be flexible?
Can people accept the use of fertilized eggs for scientific purposes if they believe that a fertilized egg is a human being, owning full human rights? Surely not! That's why governments will not juggle their ethical standards, unless medical progress derived from stem cell research is really world-shaking.
The Hinxton Group's statement warns that the freedom of investigators may be endangered. Germany, for example, applies its domestic law to its citizens even when they are outside its borders. From that it follows that German scientists could, in principle, be prosecuted for having created or worked with new stem cell lines elsewhere when they return home.
That also concerns Israeli scientists. Though they are allowed to work with all lines it is illegal in Israel to solicit eggs from women for making new stem cell lines.
Of course that problem worries scientists and that's why they have to express their concerns. But it's naive to believe that their statements and concerns will oblige governments to change the rules.
Recently, the medley of rules and laws has become an explicit problem in Europe because the EU Commissioner for Science and Research, Janez Potocnik, announced that the European Union will expand its financial support for stem cell research under the upcoming EU's science funding program FP7. Countries like Germany, Austria or Poland applying strict regulations on stem cell research are not very apt to funding research which is not legal in their countries. At a meeting in March in Brussels theses countries as well as Malta, Italy and Slovakia opposed the Commissioners' plans and proposed a ban on funding stem cell research. Though the reluctant ministers could not win the others over, they hold enough power to form a blocking minority.
By this means they could even stop the implementation of FP7...
