§ Lord McColl of Dulwichasked Her Majesty's Government:
Whether the prohibition on financial gain from the "making of the human body and its parts" in Article 3(2) of the draft European Union Charter on Fundamental Rights would include "therapeutic cloning"; and, if so, whether they will refuse any future proposals by the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority to allow researchers and their financial sources to profit from the development of clinical solutions developed as a result of their research into therapeutic cloning. [HL3958]
51WA
§ The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department of Health (Lord Hunt of Kings Heath)The charter will be a political declaration and is not legally binding. Article 3(2) of the draft European Charter on Fundamental Rights specifies that using "the human body and its parts as such" as a source of financial gain is prohibited. The text of Article 21 of the European Convention on Human Rights and Biomedicine includes a similar provision. The explanatory report to that convention points out that, although organs and tissues should not give rise to financial gains, technical52WA acts which are performed on the basis of these items may legitimately give rise to reasonable remuneration. The Praesidium commentary on Article 3 notes that this Article was intended to reflect the principles of the Convention on Human Rights and Biomedicine and hence that it would be subject to the same interpretation. Thus, permitting researchers to make financial gain from clinical solutions for, for example, the treatment of diseased or damaged tissues or organs which have been developed from research involving cell nuclear replacement ("therapeutic cloning") would not be inconsistent with Article 3(2).