As regards human dignity, the Court points out that that principle is clearly taken into account in the Directive in so far as Article 5(1) of the Directive provides that the human body at the various stages of its formation and development cannot constitute a patentable invention [55].

It should be noted from the outset that, contrary to what is sometimes affirmed, the Directive is not intended to jeopardise respect for the integrity of the human body.

(21) Whereas such an element isolated from the human body or otherwise produced is not excluded from patentability since it is, for example, the result of technical processes used to identify, purify and classify it and to reproduce it outside the human body, techniques which human beings alone are capable of putting into practice and which nature is incapable of accomplishing by itself;

(20) Whereas, therefore, it should be made clear that an invention based on an element isolated from the human body or otherwise produced by means of a technical process, which is susceptible of industrial application, is not excluded from patentability, even where the structure of that element is identical to that of a natural element, given that the rights conferred by the patent do not extend to the human body and its elements in their natural environment;

(17) Whereas significant progress in the treatment of diseases has already been made thanks to the existence of medicinal products derived from elements isolated from the human body and/or otherwise produced, such medicinal products resulting from technical processes aimed at obtaining elements similar in structure to those existing naturally in the human body and whereas, consequently, research aimed at obtaining and isolating such elements valuable to medicinal production should be encouraged by means of the patent system;

Whereas this Directive relates only to cosmetic products and not to pharmaceutical specialities and medicinal products ; whereas for this purpose it is necessary to define the scope of the Directive by delimiting the field of cosmetics from that of pharmaceuticals ; whereas this delimitation follows in particular from the detailed definition of cosmetic products, which refers both to their areas of application and to the purposes of their use ; whereas this Directive is not applicable to the products that fall under the definition of cosmetic product but are exclusively intended to protect from disease ; whereas, moreover, it is advi ...[+++]sable to specify that certain products come under this definition, whilst products containing substances or preparations intended to be ingested, inhaled, injected or implanted in the human body do not come under the field of cosmetics;