Each Country Worries about “Monopolization of Biotechnology by US“

As the U.S.`s biotechnology venture company, Advanced Cell Technology (ACT) succeeded on the human cloning, each country began to establish the countermeasures such as instant legislation for regulation on human cloning.

But on the other side of anti-human cloning movement based on the ethical legitimacy, the psychological warfare, information search and research competition have been intensified among the advanced countries, which stirred concerns about the U.S.`s monopolization on the future medical technology market such as mass production of stem cells, likened to `a goose that laid the golden eggs`.

German Research Minister Edelgard Bulmahn criticized on 26th, "It is a dualistic morality that the U.S. government has applied the different standards to the public institutions and the private companies with regard to the human fetus cloning."

The U.S. President George W. Bush said in a press conference on 26th, "The human fetus cloning was morally wrong. We should not, as a society, grow life to destroy it." But the critics assert that the U.S. president is actually preparing the future market by granting the private companies with `free hand`.

The German medical circles and related companies have also raised the voice to demand for the medical and industrial use of gene. The German government, thus, has prepared for new legislation to expand the research range of biotechnology.

The British government, whose regulation on human cloning has been relatively loose among the advanced countries, plans to establish the emergency legislation prohibiting the human reproductive cloning and to pass through the House of Lords until the end of this week.

This bill prohibits the placing in a woman a human embryo which has been created otherwise by fertilization and offenders would face up to 10 years in prison. The emergency legislation was rushed through the parliament`s upper chamber on 26th night and will be passed by the House of Commons by this week.

But some parliamentary members and related companies expressed their worries on such an exceptionally swift legislation process.

The Japanese government declared yesterday that it would prohibit the human fetus cloning, but would allow for the medically useful research by using other cells of human or animal. And the Japanese government plans to establish the guideline on the human cloning industry research soon.

The Korean government did not express the official position regarding the announcement of the ACT yet, but it will submit the `bioethic law`(tentative name) in the special session of the National Assembly in the beginning of next year. The law is known to prohibit the human cloning, but it will give permission for the temporary research on the frozen fetus, considering the development possibility in medical and biotechnological industries.

Gee-Hong Lee sechepa@donga.com