Eksperymenty na ludzkich embrionach. Europejskie regulacje prawne

Abstract

Recent discoveries in medicine have made the problem of human embryos protecting still more urgent. In the European Union as well, almost every state intends to pass a law concerning human embryos, especially regarding the limits of experimentation with them. There is also the proposal of creating a unique juridical area in the whole of Europe, i.e. the same law in all countries. Those countries which do not yet have such a law directly concerning human embryos (Poland among others) would like to join this idea. However, few countries have the same regulations. Some of them (e.g. Italy) want to protect human embryos and make nontherapeutic experiments illegal. Other countries (e.g. France, Germany) are more prone to support some kind of experimentation with human embryos. There are also countries (e.g. England, Sweden) which in practice place no restriction on experimentation. Apart from the law which passed in certain European countries, there are also some guidelines prepared by the main European institutions (the European Parliament, the Council of Europe, etc.) which should be used in the formulation of new laws concerning the manipulation of the human embryos and which unfortunately are already not taken into consideration by some liberal countries. The general tendency (also seen in the guidelines) is to make the law less and less restrictive with a resulting disadvantage for the human embryos (especially early embryos used for experimentation with embryonic stem cells). Countries like Poland have a dilemma: what should they do in order to make the same law in the entire European Union? To follow general European rules which involve all countries or to imitate those countries which have already passed a new law which, however, disregards these rules. This paper presents the general situation concerning experimentation with human embryos in the largest European countries and shows how difficult it is to bring about the proposal of an unique juridical area (at least in this field).