European Court Clears Way for Stem-Cell Patents

December 18, 2014

(Nature) – Europe’s highest court has ruled that human embryonic stem cells made from unfertilized eggs can be patented – on the basis that they lack the potential to turn into a human being. The cells in question are created through a process called parthenogenesis, after the Greek words for virgin and birth. In some animals, parthenogenesis is a means of asexual reproduction but human cells created in this way are not capable of properly developing. The ruling, issued on 18 December by the European Court of Justice, backtracks on the court’s more general, 2011 ban on obtaining patents for human embryonic stem cells (ESCs).