- science and research must be free, but the dignity of the individual and the fundamental rights of every human being must be protected;
- the outcome of biomedical research should be such as to benefit humankind as a whole and future generations;
- the EU must exercise the powers in the field of human genetics as regards health, the operation of the internal market and the financing of research.
The committee has called on the EU to:
- establish a legal and regulatory frame of reference and earmark substantial funding for genomic research;
- endorse the priority assigned to genomics and biotechnology for health in the proposal for a decision concerning the sixth research framework programme;
- support cooperation among academic researchers, doctors, biotechnologists, entrepreneurs, and industry in general aimed at identifying the functions of genome data and developing new medical treatments;
- support prenormative research in the field of human genetics, including for example quality assessment standards and quality guarantees for genetic testing;
- encourage regulatory authorities to play an active role at the right time by providing platforms to consider new biomedical developments;
- set up centralised information and/or common material systems, employing procedures such as registration of data on new biomedicines, including clinical trial data and information connected with the subsequent approval stage, comparison with pharmacogenetic data or the organisation of patient databanks or the development of central tissue banks;
- support research into the ethical, social, legal, and economic aspects of human genetics;
- support initiatives seeking to foster a new consensus on life science applications by popularising the life sciences in the media and increasing public understanding;
- support integrated multidisciplinary education and training, greater education and training in leading-edge technologies and integrated education and training programmes in biomedical research/development/management, based on international cooperation between universities and industry.
The Committee adopted amendments giving priority to research into adult stem cells and not allowing funding of research projects using embryonic stem cells. The draft report states that EU funding should not be given to research on human embryos, therapeutic cloning and for research aimed at modifying the human gene line. This will make the EU much more restrictive in the area of human genetics than the United States of America.
