Company may not examine embryos without permission
Laboratories are not allowed to investigate the use of human embryos, without the prior permission of the competent ethics Commission. The Bavarian administrative court in Ansbach decided on (reference number 20 B 18.290). The Munich-based laboratory Synlab wanted to obtain court permission to be able to conduct certain investigations on embryos without the prior consent of the ethicist.
Specifically, it is the so-called types: trophectoderm biopsies, which are not the Embryo cells are removed, but the surrounding tissue, after implantation in the uterus of the mother cake. The investigation falls according to the laboratory, therefore, under the embryo protection act.
Hereditary charged cells should not be sorted out, it will only examine whether a cell can take root at all and the woman gets pregnant. This is especially for women over 35 important. Because the have a dramatically high risk that their children fail to request treatments, argues head of laboratory, Claudia Nevinny-Stickel-Hinzpeter.
Decision is not yet final
The court followed this view, however. Even if the studied cells and later develop to the placenta, belong to you according to the statutory Definition of “cells of an embryo”, – stated in the verdict. The decision is not yet final. The judges have approved a Revision to the Federal administrative court, because of the fundamental importance of the Case.
Studies of embryos in Germany are subject to strict legal regulations. Why this is so, not least by the recent developments in China. There, the researchers He Jiankui claims to have the first genetically modified people created by changes in embryos before implantation in the mother’s womb is genetically. Read more about it here.
In these cases, genetic testing are admissible
Who’s cells changed in Germany, the human germ, the law for the protection of up to five years in prison, according to the Embryos. Only under special circumstances, an Embryo before planting may be examined at all genetically (pre-implantation genetic diagnosis, short PID). Either there must be the risk of serious hereditary diseases or the high probability of a stillbirth or a miscarriage. PID ethics committees to decide whether an investigation is allowed.
The city of Munich had said the laboratory Synlab therefore, studies without the approval of the competent ethics Commission. To the right, the Munich medical ethicist Georg Marckmann, from Ludwig-Maximilians-University. The laboratory experiments with a Trick to circumvent the statutory provisions.
The objective of the embryo protection law is to protect the Embryo from getting implanted. It was completely no matter, whether the decision is based on analysis of the surrounding tissues or of the embryo itself. “What matters is the consequence,” says Marckmann, “the non-implantation due to a genetic investigation.”
The Deputy Chairman of the German ethics Council, Claudia Wiesemann, also opposed to the easing, calls, however, the bureaucratic hurdles for an application to reduce. In General, the families, the requests were impacted by a severely disabled child or multiple miscarriages. “These couples, you should not make your Situation to be a time consuming process and high financial charges will be even harder.”
How many applications for a PID, the five ethics committees in Germany, is not collected centrally. Wiesemann, however, 300 to 400 cases a year.
Bavarian Commission judge strict
Much of it comes in front of the Bavarian ethics Committee, because there are many PID centers. According to information from the Bavarian health Ministry has decided in the past year, 155 cases and 12 applications have been rejected. The processing fee for each application is between 100 and 5000 Euro, depending on the workload.
For comparison, The PID-Commission of Northern for the States of Brandenburg, Bremen, Hamburg, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, lower Saxony and Schleswig-Holstein, lists for the past year, 20 applications, of which a and a are withdrawn, was rejected. In North Rhine-Westphalia, were approved by the 20 applications, all.
“It can be a Problem that the commissions in the individual States to decide differently and there is no parent instance, so no possibility to appeal,” says Wiesemann. In comparable cases, the Bavarian Commission has ruled, for example, more stringent.
