Doc. 9154
28 June 2001

The treatment and cure of spinal injury

Motion for a recommendation

presented by Mrs Ragnarsdóttir and others

This motion has not been discussed in the Assembly and commits only

the members who have signed it

1.       It is estimated that 90 million people around the world currently suffer from some form of spinal cord injury. In Europe there are approximately 300,000 paraplegics, the average of whom is 31, while in the United States alone 250,000 people suffer from spinal cord injuries (10,000 people each year). In two-thirds of cases, road accidents were the cause of injury, with sporting accidents making up another 10% of the total. Advances in treatment have resulted in increasing numbers of people with spinal cord injuries surviving and living decently with their disability. Eighty-five thousand people each year survive a traumatic spinal cord injury and prepare to spend an average of forty years or more in a wheelchair.

2.       For lack of a cure, priority has been given to rehabilitation aimed at alleviating discomfort of the patient. The last ten years, however, have seen extraordinary developments in the treatment of spinal cord injuries (for example, the regeneration of the central nervous system is no longer considered impossible). Although there is little evidence yet that the amount of regeneration required to restore functions such as the ability to walk at different speeds in humans can be achieved, tests on animals with complete spinal cord injuries have shown that the potential exists.

3.       The significant economic cost of current treatments of spinal cord injuries (estimated at several billion Euros per year) should encourage member states to increase their efforts to support and finance research aimed at finding a cure for paralysis. The positive results achieved by the European project “Stand Up and Walk” in attempting to restore the upright mobility of paraplegics through Functional Electrical Stimulation (the implantation of electrodes on or under the skin in order to stimulate the underlying muscles) indicate that treatment of spinal injury should not be limited to providing basic long-term care for patients, however important.

4.       International organisations such as the Council of Europe, but in the first instance the World Health Organisation (WHO), can help doctors and researchers working on spinal cord injuries by contributing to the support and co-ordination of their work, and ensuring that national authorities encourage public and private funding and give attention and support to such initiatives as the International Campaign for Cures of Spinal Cord Injury Paralysis (ICCP). Adequately funded joint action by governments and organisations must be encouraged to ensure that research findings are available to doctors, patients, researchers and all those seeking a cure for spinal cord injury. Such co-operation could constitute a model for other areas of treatment.

5.       The Parliamentary Assembly therefore recommends that the Committee of Ministers:

i.       encourage member states to co-operate with and adequately fund the WHO in the creation of a database for the treatment and cure of spinal cord injury. This database would centralise all existing and future medical and scientific material on spinal injury and ensure co-operation between doctors and researchers from all over the world;

ii.       encourage member states to support and provide funding for research that is aimed at finding a cure for serious spinal cord injury;

iii.       encourage member states to work towards promoting co-operation between doctors and scientists from developed and developing countries so that appropriate healthcare for sufferers of spinal injury is not limited to the wealthy.

Signed: 1

Ragnarsdóttir, Iceland, EDG

Akçali, Turkey, EDG

Akgönenç, Turkey, EDG

Atkinson, United Kingdom, EDG

Baumel, France, EDG

Belohorska, Slovakia, EDG

Biga-Friganovic, Croatia, SOC

Billing, Sweden, EDG

Cerrahoğlu, Turkey, EDG

Chapman, United Kingdom, EDG

Christodoulides, Cyprus, UEL

Dobelis, Latvia, EDG

Dromberg, Finland, EDG

Frímannsdóttir, Iceland, SOC

Galoyan, Armenia, EPP/CD

Gross, Switzerland, SOC

Gülek, Turkey, SOC

Haraldsson, Iceland, LDR

Ilaşcu, Romania, EDG

Jansson, Finland, LDR

Judd, United Kingdom, SOC

Jurgens, Netherlands, SOC

Kalkan, Turkey, EDG

Kiely, Ireland, LDR

Kirilov, Bulgaria, SOC

Laakso, Finland, UEL

Landsbergis, Lithuania, EDG

Manukyan, Armenia, UEL

Markovic-Dimova, “the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia”, LDR

Ojuland, Estonia, LDR

Ouzky, Czech Republic, EDG

Paleckova, Czech Republic, EDG

Položhani, “the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia”, EDG

Rise, Norway, EPP/CD

Rogozin, Russia, EDG

Schreiner, France, EDG

Seyidov, Azerbaijan, EDG

Shakhtakhtinskaya, Azerbaijan, EDG

Slutski, Russia, SOC

Stepová, Czech Republic, SOC

Stoyanova, Bulgaria, EPP/CD

Taylor, United Kingdom, EPP/CD

Telek, Turkey, EDG

Tevdoradze, Georgia, EDG

Tiuri, Finland, EDG

Tkác, Slovakia, EDG

Toshev, Bulgaria, EPP/CD

Truu, Estonia, EDG

Tudor, Romania, EDG

Valleix, France, EDG

van der Linden, Netherlands, EP/CD

Vella, Malta, EPP/CD

Vis, United Kingdom, SOC

Wilkinson, United Kingdom, EDG

Zapfl, Switzerland, EP/CD


1        SOC: Socialist Group

      EPP/CD: Group of the European People’s Party

      EDG: European Democratic Group

      LDR : Liberal, Democratic and Reformers’ Group

      UEL: Group of the Unified European Left

      NR: not registered in a group