STEM CELL part 21

Ethics, policy and regulation

Like many areas of biomedical science, stem cell research has provoked debate regarding the ethics and regulation of the research and resulting therapies. Initiallly these discussions focused largely  on the moral status of the embryo (EuroStemCell, 2011). Goverments responded with different regulations and legislations, leading to international complexities (Kawakami et  al., 2010, Nakatsuji et al., 2007, STEMGEN, 2013). Countries including Australia, Singapore, Spain, South Korea, Belgium, the UK, and Sweden take a tightly regulated but permissive approach to research involving the use of human embryos to generate embryonic stem cell lines. Other have placed some restrictions on research in this area, either through direct legislation or by limiting the uses of research funding.