Biomedical Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Generally speaking, the permissive versus restrictive classification
tends to be based on whether or not research is permitted on
embryos at all, whether research must be conducted under licence,
whether research can only be performed on excess IVF embryos and
what kinds of research are allowed. An example of a restrictive
regime would thus be where no research on any embryos is allowed
for any reason. In the early days of the global debate, Ireland, Italy
and Germany had restrictive regulations in place (Walters, 2004).
A permissive regulatory regime, by contrast, would be the case where
any kind of research is allowed on any kind of embryo. Belgium was
one such location (Walters, 2004). In reality, most countries around
the world have some kind of regulatory framework in place that
allows some kind of research on some kinds of embryos (Isasi and
Knoppers, 2006). As vague as this may sound, what it means, in
effect, is that the regulations governing stem cell research worldwide
no longer break down into easily categorized definitions.
Nevertheless, research on the scientific output of different
countries related to stem cell sciences is argued to demonstrate that
stricter regulatory regimes affect research capacity (Levine, 2008).
Using data sets generated in 2005, research showed that countries
with permissive policies supporting the conduct of stem cell science
produced the most outputs (Levine, 2008). The converse was also
true, that countries with restrictive regulations were a barrier to
research output (Levine, 2008). Although this measure of innovation
performance may be contested, the important result here is that
there was an observable correlation between output and policy that
might be used to demonstrate the impact that restrictive regulatory
parameters have on the overall competitiveness of national
performance in the stem cell sciences (Levine, 2008).
While debate around the regulation of stem cell research tends to
focus only on that involving experimental research on embryos,
there is a whole host of other regulatory frameworks that can impact
on stem cell research of all kinds too. These include previously
existing rules about experiments involving humans, biosafety
regulations regarding human biologicals, and medical product and
device development protocols. In some instances, additional
regulations have been developed to deal with the emergence of
