Data Bank: U.S. Reproductive Biotechnology Regulation Falls Behind
Last week, Jonathan Moreno called for international standards governing reproductive technologies. But if we want to ensure that frightening decisions about genetic modification are not being made around the world, we should first focus on developing strict regulatory standards here at home.
At the moment, the United States has no existing federal policies on a host of reproductive technologies, including techniques at the center of bioethical debates, from reproductive cloning to preimplantation genetic diagnosis. The latter is a technology that made news last week when a Los Angeles reproductive clinic, Fertility Institutes, announced that it will soon offer services that will allow parents to choose some of an embryo’s physical traits like eye color, hair color, and complexion.
Richard Hayes, of the Center for Genetics and Society, surveyed human biotechnology policies around the world for Science Progress last year, and this map captures his research on regulations in place across the planet:
It suffices to say that the United States has fallen behind the rest of the world in its regulation of reproductive biotechnologies. Many peer nations, including England, France, Japan and Australia, socially prohibit sex selection technologies. However, there are currently no U.S. federal regulations on this controversial technique. In fact, a 2006 survey by the Genetics and Public Policy Center at Johns Hopkins University found that 42 percent of 137 clinics in the United States that offer preimplantation genetic diagnosis also offer a gender-selection service. The United States does not even have any regulation in place governing inheritable genetic modification in humans, a technique used in animal experimentation that determines phenotypic traits passed on to children. Dozens of industrialized countries in Europe and Asia strongly prohibit the technology.
The science behind these biotechnologies is moving fast. It’s time for the policy to catch up.
[Note: The map above displays data available in the Center for Genetics and Society’s BioPolicyWiki as of October 28, 2008.]
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