The Convention on Human Rights and Biomedicine twenty years later: a look at the past and a step towards the future.

A document published by the Council of Europe provides practical indications for interpreting Article 21 of the Convention on Human Rights and Biomedicine, which asserts that "The human body and its parts shall not, as such, give rise to financial gain". In Italy the Istituto Superiore di Sanità (ISS, Italian National Institute of Health) is actively committed to comply fully with this imperative ethical requirement.