To the editor

On 30 January 2002, the German Parliament voted to permit the importation of embryonic stem (ES) cells for research isolated from so-called surplus in vitro fertilization (IVF) embryos. Although the production of ES cells from human blastocysts is prohibited by the German Embryo Protection Act of 1990, research on existing ES cell lines is not.

There has been intense debate in Germany on the ethical issues surrounding the production and destruction of human embryos for research purposes ever since the first successful isolation of ES cells in 1998. Germans are particularly sensitive about the use of ES cells for research because of the well-known abuses of human rights during the eugenics research of the Nazi era. In May of last year, Germany's main research funding agency, the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG), issued guidelines to permit import of, and research on, ES cells. This was encouraging for Otmar Wiestler and Oliver Brüstle of the University of Bonn, two neuropathologists who had previously submitted a proposal around one year before the guidelines were issued. Public criticism was such, however, that the Research Ministry and National Ethics Council—a committee recently established by Chancellor Gerhard Schröder—were moved to ask the DFG to delay funding for Wiestler and Brüstle with the aim of allowing more time for discussion.

Three legislative proposals were discussed by the German Bundestag: Proposal 1, which prohibited the importation of ES cells and called for a complete ban on ES cell research; Proposal 2, which permitted ES cell research under very strict limits and regulations, but only on cell lines imported from elsewhere and legally isolated solely from surplus IVF embryos; and Proposal 3, which permitted both the import and the generation in Germany of ES cells without special restrictions from surplus IVF embryos.

In a final ballot, which differed fundamentally from conventional procedures because the parliamentarians were exempted from voting along party lines, Proposal 2 passed with a majority of 75. One day after Parliament's decision, the DFG approved the only application for ES cell research, submitted by Wiestler and Brüstle 18 months before.