Mind the gap: policy approaches to embryonic stem cell and cloning research in 50 countries.

In his Nicomachean Ethics, Aristotle highlighted the connection between ethics and politics. This intersection between ethics and public policy remains important more than two thousand years later. For instance, in the stem cell and cloning debate, the boundaries between science, religion, ethics and politics are often blurred. The recent adoption of the United NationsDeclaration on Human Cloning demonstrates the polarization of worldviews on this controversial topic. Few scientific discoveries have elicited more enduring concern among scholars, government officials, and the general public than the permissibility of conducting research on embryos in general, and human embryonic stem cells (hESC) and cloning research in particular. Governments are challenged to with the vexing question of how to balance the therapeutic prospects of hESC and cloning research with the complex socio-ethical and moral issues involved. Countries have framed the policy debates surrounding embryo, stem cell and cloning research differently. The historical, cultural and sociological context, the institutional framework, and the mobilization of stakeholders are factors that help explain why countries that seemingly share similar socio-religious beliefs have adopted diametrically opposite public policies.