Regulating ‘respect’ for the embryo: social mindscapes and human embryonic stem cell research in Japan

This article explores the relationship between the science community and the bioethical regulation of human embryonic stem cell research (hESR) in the laboratory and in daily life in Japan. It develops a perspective that takes into account the diversity of views among principle investigators (PIs) and scientists working in the laboratory. Deploying Eviatar Zerubavel’s notion of social mindscapes and the notion of mindsets, I elucidate the relationships between the personal and the professional, scientists and the public. Introducing the concept of mindset switching, I argue that scientists’ views of embryonic substances cannot be understood adequately in terms of the rhetoric of boundary making alone. The use of cognitive notions of social mindscape applied to situations in the life of scientists has far-reaching consequences for both the implementation of research regulation involving respect for the embryo and for the public discussion on the use of embryonic substances. The article is based on interviews with over thirty scientists working with embryos and stem cells during fieldwork visits in eleven science institutes in Japan

Ooplasmic and nuclear transfer to prevent mitochondrial DNA disorders: conceptual and normative issues

BACKGROUND: Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) disorders are an important cause of human diseases. In view of the limitations of prenatal diagnosis and preimplantation genetic diagnoses, alternatives such as ooplasmic transfer (OT) and nuclear transfer (NT) have been proposed to prevent the transmission of mtDNA mutations. Both OT and NT are radical in the sense that they do not entail genetic selection, but genetic intervention to correct the genetic cause of the disease. METHODS: After interviews with experts in the field, the relevant literature was searched and analyzed. Bioethical issues were divided into conceptual and normative points. RESULTS: OT is the transfer of normal mitochondria to a carrier's oocyte containing mutant mtDNA. In case of NT, a donated oocyte is enucleated and replaced with the nuclear DNA from a woman carrying a mtDNA mutation. NT can be performed both before and after in vitro fertilization, respectively, with the nucleus of an unfertilized oocyte, with the pronuclei of the zygote, or with the nucleus of a blastomere of an embryo. Conceptual questions regard whether these techniques amount to germ-line modification and human cloning. Normative questions concern, among others, the significance of intervening in the mtDNA, the implications of having 'three genetic parents', the ethics of oocyte donation and the health and safety risks for children conceived as a result of one of these techniques. CONCLUSIONS: Further interdisciplinary debate and research is needed to determine whether a clinical application of OT and NT can be morally justified, and if so, under which conditions