Press Release: Opinion of the Advocate General in Case C-34/10. Brüstle v Greenpeace eV

According to Advocate General M. Yves Bot, totipotent cells carrying within them the capacity to evolve into a complete human being must be legally classified as human embryos and must therefore be excluded from patentability.
Nor can a procedure using other embryonic stem cells, known as pluripotent cells, be patented where it first requires the destruction or modification of the embryo.