Japanese researchers of Kyoto University’s Institute for Frontier Medical Sciences have announced it will not begin research in human cloning or embryo research. And these guys could pursue this research if they wanted to.

Why won’t they be doing this research anytime soon? Three reasons.

First, Japanese ministry guidelines have strict regulations to protect women who are the prime targets for the much coveted egg resource.

Second, human cloning research is “technically difficult”. The kinks are far from being worked out, the failure rate is very high making it very inefficient for the researchers at the bench.

And last but not least, ethics matter and human cloning and human embryo research raise a multitude of ethical questions not easily answered by science.

Author Profile

Jennifer Lahl, CBC Founder
Jennifer Lahl, CBC Founder
Jennifer Lahl, MA, BSN, RN, is founder and president of The Center for Bioethics and Culture Network. Lahl couples her 25 years of experience as a pediatric critical care nurse, a hospital administrator, and a senior-level nursing manager with a deep passion to speak for those who have no voice. Lahl’s writings have appeared in various publications including Cambridge University Press, the San Francisco Chronicle, the Dallas Morning News, and the American Journal of Bioethics. As a field expert, she is routinely interviewed on radio and television including ABC, CBS, PBS, and NPR. She is also called upon to speak alongside lawmakers and members of the scientific community, even being invited to speak to members of the European Parliament in Brussels to address issues of egg trafficking; she has three times addressed the United Nations during the Commission on the Status of Women on egg and womb trafficking.