World Congress for Freedom of Scientific Research the bulletin

Number 28, September 2011

• Are gene patents eligible? A comment. “A recent ruling by the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit has reversed a lower court’s decision that Myriad Genetics’ composition of matter claims covering isolated DNA molecules were patent-ineligible products of nature “since the molecules as claimed do not exist in nature””. Read the full article by Amedeo Santosuosso and Carmen Sorrentino.
• Historic U.N. Ruling Finds Brazil Violates Woman’s Human Rights in Maternal Death Case. In the first-ever maternal death case to be decided by an international human rights body, the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women established that governments have a human rights obligation to guarantee that all women in their countries—regardless of income or racial background—have access to timely, non-discriminatory, and appropriate maternal health services. Read the decision. Read the full article by the Center for Reproductive Rights.
• IACHR takes case involving Costa Rica to Inter-American Court. The Commission deemed that Costa Rica absolute ban on practicing the assisted reproductive technique of in vitro fertilization constituted arbitrary interference in the right to private and family life and the right to found a family. The Commission also deemed that the ban constituted a violation of the victims’ right to equal protection. Read more.
• Eight National Congress of Luca Coscioni Association, operational secretariat of the World Congress (Rome, October 1-2, 2011). The issues of the World Congress for freedom of scientific research will be tackled, October 1-2 in Rome at the Eight National Congress of Luca Coscioni Association. Former Spanish Minister of Health, Bernat Soria, now CABIMER – Andalusian Center for Molecular Biology and Regenerative Medicine, André Ulmann, founder and chairman of HRA Pharma and Françoise Shenfield, Clinical Lecturer in Infertility and Honorary Lecturer in Medical Ethics at UCL Medical School, London have already confirmed their attendance. Translation Italian-English will be available.

News in brief:

• “Scientists promised ‘one voice’ in European policy. ScienceEurope hopes to shift balance of power away from Brussels and towards researchers” (source NatureNews)

• “Turkish Science Academy Fights Government Changes” (source Science)

• “UK medics lead Europe’s first embryonic stem cell trial” (source BBC news)

Freedom of research and treatment around the world. Take the survey!

Watch Project Intro       Watch Survey Tutorial       Take the survey

Help complete the survey aiming to gather data that will be added to the existing database monitoring the freedom of research and treatment around the world. Take the survey if you are familiar with the laws regulating one of more of the following areas of biomedical research and/or health care in any country: (1) Assisted Reproductive Technologies; (2) Abortion; (3) Research with Human Embryonic Stem Cells; and (4) End of Life Decisions. If you would like any additional information, have questions or are willing to make suggestions to improve the survey, you can contact at collaborators@freedomofresearch.org

Edited by Carmen Sorrentino

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