Call for relaxation of German stem cell laws

Germany's laws restricting research on human embryonic stem cells (ES cells) are no longer appropriate and need to be relaxed, according to the German Research Foundation (DFG) - the country's main funding agency. Currently, German scientists can undertake research on imported ES cell lines created before January 2002, but they are forbidden from creating new ES cell lines or from cloning human embryos for research purposes. But in a report released on 10th November, the DFG recommends that researchers should have access to new stem cell lines, provided they were created using 'spare' IVF embryos. It also says that the importing of human ES cells should be permitted for clinical, as well as research uses, and that German scientists should not be penalised for carrying out ES cell research abroad.

All forms of human cloning have been prohibited in Germany since the Embryo Protection Act of 1991, while the Stem Cell Act of 2002 forbids researchers from working on new ES cell lines, either within or outside Germany - an offence that carries a penalty of up to three years in prison. The DFG argues that because of this legal framework, German scientists can only make 'a limited contribution' to this field. It says that permitting access to new cell lines would, in the long term, circumvent the production of further stem cell lines.

The DFG says it still condemns 'research cloning', or SCNT (somatic cell nuclear transfer), and that alternative methods should be researched for the time being. It also says that research into adult stem cells must be further promoted, as it 'represents a meaningful supplement to, though not a substitute for, embryonic stem cell research'. Despite the recommendations, federal research minister Annette Schaven, a Christian Democrat, has ruled out any changes to the current law. But there are splits on the issue for the first time both in her party and its sister party the Christian Socialists, the journal Nature reports. The Social Democrat coalition partner and the opposition Free Democrats are also divided over ES cell research.

In response to the DFG's report, Schaven has promised to launch a research programme for alternatives to ES cells 'in the near future'. However, Oliver Brüstle, one of the DFG report's authors and head of the Institute for Reconstructive Neurobiology at the University of Bonn, said that 'this top-down attempt to provide alternatives has been the ministry's line since the beginning, and has been shown not to work'. He added that 'it will be extremely dangerous to ignore international developments'.