Public PolicyInternational policy failures: cloning and stem-cell research
Section snippets
Reproductive cloning
Currently, the international community agrees that human cloning for reproductive reasons should not be attempted. The rationale cites safety considerations in view of the many difficulties and defects reported in the cloning of animals.2 This argument, which lends support to at least a temporary ban on reproductive cloning, is almost universally accepted by both scientists and ethicists.
A different justification for prohibition of reproductive cloning states that to attempt to produce a
Objections to separation of cloning issues
Some examples of legislation that separate reproductive cloning from cloning for research prudently draw the line at the point of embryo transfer. In the UK the law states that “a person who places in a woman a human embryo which has been created otherwise than by fertilisation is guilty of an offence”.4 Setting the legal limit at the point of transfer eliminates one of the more striking objections to allowing research cloning while ruling out reproductive cloning: the objection that if a
Funding controversial research
When the law is silent on a specific practice, individuals can assume the procedure is permitted but not necessarily supported at the policy level. However, when public policy provides funding for particular types of research then it seems to be approving that work. Citizens who object to their taxes paying for research that they judge immoral may legitimately raise concerns.
In the USA, laws at the federal level are generally silent about embryo, stem-cell, and cloning research. When federal
Importance of public funding
When a country or group of countries makes a decision on the funding of research it is identifying activities that it wishes to encourage. Individual countries and the EU have decided to fund biomedical investigations to promote advances in science and medicine that might save lives and contribute to quality of life. The basic work that is needed for scientific progress is generally not of interest to private corporations or investors since prospects for a return on investment are theoretical
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Nat Biotechnol
(2004)On the road to therapeutic cloning
Nat Biotechnol
(2004)There will never be another you
Human reproductive cloning act 2001
(2001)Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 1990, amended 2001
(2001)House of Lords reject challenge to therapeutic cloning: press release
Israel: prohibition of genetic intervention (human cloning and genetic manipulation of reproductive cells) law, 5759-1999
Recommendations on embryonic stem cell research in Israel
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US Public Law 103-43, June 10, 1993. The NIH revitalization act of 1993, part II: research on transplantation of fetal tissue
Consensus in ethics and public policy: the deliberations of the US Human Fetal Tissue Transplantation Research Panel
Cited by (22)
Advances in individualized and regenerative medicine
2014, Advances in Medical SciencesCitation Excerpt :Both, embryonic stem cells (ESCs) and adult stem cells (ASCs), (Table 2) have been explored in the context of regenerative medicine. Embryo-derived ESCs (ED-ESCs) can be obtained from blastomeres as well as from blastocysts 4–5 days after fertilization or from blastocysts derived from somatic cell after NT to an enucleated egg (NT-ESCs) [45,52]. These cells are pluripotent, have an unlimited life span (Table 3), can be differentiated in vitro into virtually any cell type and grown into tissues or organoids by tissue engineering for clinical applications in regenerative medicine [53].
Stem cells of the alveolar epithelium
2005, LancetThe moral imperative to conduct embryonic stem cell and cloning research
2006, Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare EthicsModel legislation and the transnational governance of human heritable gene editing
2021, Asian Biotechnology and Development ReviewRecognizing and legitimizing the transnational scientific governance of human gene editing
2017, McGill Journal of Law and HealthCell therapies and regenerative medicine
2014, Hepatology International