Germany's Research and Education Ministry is preparing a national stem cell strategy paper that will include legal guidelines for German scientists wishing to collaborate with foreign colleagues but fearful of breaking German criminal laws, a ministry spokesman has confirmed.

Embryonic stem cell research is strictly regulated in Germany. Two years ago, a study commissioned by German Research Foundation (DFG) warned German scientists that collaborating with colleagues abroad who are producing embryonic stem cells would be illegal. The study said that scientists simply giving informal advice via E-mail or telephone to such colleagues could face criminal prosecution.

This week, ministry spokesman Florian Frank confirmed media reports about the strategy and told The Scientist that research minister Edelgard Bulmahn did not want German stem cell scientists to be isolated from colleagues in nations with less restrictive laws than Germany.

"We really want that German scientists can participate in stem cell programs in other countries. You need cooperation between German scientists and scientists in other countries," Frank said. He acknowledged that German scientists who feel isolated might end up leaving Germany. "We most certainly do not want to lose scientists."

The strategy paper is being prepared by scientific and legal experts within the research ministry and will probably be released publicly in July or August, Frank said. Although the paper will include legal guidelines for scientists, the main thrust will be to define stem cell research goals in Germany in coming years and what changes in law would be needed.

The current German law, only 3 years old, bans production of embryonic stem cells within Germany and allows import of only cells created before January 1, 2002. Minister Bulmahn has steadfastly maintained that the current law is sufficient for the basic research being conducted in Germany.

However, Frank said, "At some time in the future, when [scientists] are ready for clinical research, a new stem cell law will be needed."

News of the ministry's strategy paper came just days after a spokesman for Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder confirmed news reports that the chancellor would support a drive for new, less restrictive embryonic stem cell and therapeutic cloning laws, but only after the next federal elections.

Frank emphasized that the strategy paper would contain only legal guidelines to help German scientists determine what sorts of collaboration and communication with colleagues abroad would be legally acceptable. It will not attempt to provide legal cover for German scientists to directly collaborate in projects abroad that would be illegal in Germany. "We want to define German law, clear up the uncertainties for German scientists," he said.

Hans-Georg Koch, who coauthored the study from 2 years ago, told The Scientist that issuing guidelines "demonstrates a good will" from the Research Ministry toward German stem cell scientists. But German stem cell law still contains "grey zones" that in the end would have to be interpreted by courts, said Koch, who is head of the Criminal Law Department at the Max Planck Institute for Foreign and International Criminal Law in Freiburg.

"Even a federal ministry will not know how a court will decide," Koch said. "The ministry can issue guidelines, what is allowed and what is forbidden, but it will be no more than a declaration of personal opinion. And my opinion is that the guidelines will not be able to avoid the grey zones."

Koch said current law most definitely has prohibited German scientists from "formal cooperations" with scientists abroad, although it is harder to determine the effect in informal contact between German-based scientists and colleagues abroad.

The only way to give German scientists full confidence in cooperating with scientists abroad would be to change German new law, he said. However, "a change of law under the current political circumstances would not be possible."