Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2000-03-30-Speech-4-040"

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"Mr President, European Patent No EP 69 53 51 has been a great shock to us. It amounts to deliberately awarding a patent for the breeding of human beings. The genetically modified human being would himself be degraded to the status of a product of genetic technology, and that would be a flagrant affront to human dignity. We are therefore delighted that, in its motion for a resolution, Parliament has taken up the proposal tabled by the Greens to the effect that we, as a Parliament, should submit a complaint to the Patent Office in Munich and that Parliament should join us in our criticism of the structural problems of the European Patent Office, because if transparency and an ethical approach are to be allowed to come into their own, we require independent supervision of the European Patent Office. This patent is no isolated case, however. It is only the tip of the iceberg or a Pandora’s box which has been open for a long time. The Patent Office has awarded a whole range of patents on human genetic make-up and thus breached the regulations of the European Patent Agreement. Parts of the human genetic make-up have, quite intolerably, been declared to be, and commercialised as, the invention and the property of third parties. We must vehemently oppose this commercialisation of human genes and these flagrant violations of human dignity. This also means, however, that we need to investigate the patenting of parts of the human genetic make-up and of genes themselves, which is also made possible by the directive on patenting. That is because we need a moratorium on the patenting of human genes and of parts of the human genetic make-up so that its social and ethical consequences, which are now everywhere to be seen, can be examined. For this patent must be a lesson and also a last warning to us to the effect that we really have to adopt a different approach in dealing with this issue. I would also have expected more from the Commission today in terms of more criticism and also of more questions about the background to the directive on patenting which also virtually legitimises past practice on the part of the Patent Office."@en1

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