Legal Status
In 2001, the Food and Drug Administration, worried about the long-term effects of creating genetic hybrids, asserted regulatory authority over cytoplasmic transfer, in effect banning the procedure in the U.S. until lengthy and extensive studies can be conducted. There is dispute as to the extent of the FDA's jurisdiction over reproductive technologies and federal law is inconclusive. The FDA claims that genetically manipulated embryos constitute a "biological product" and are therefore subject to regulation similar to medical implements and drugs. In any case, the withholding of federal funds and prohibitively expensive research costs needed to fulfill FDA regulations has resulted in movement of cytoplasmic transfer operations abroad. This has contributed to the development of reproductive tourism where infertile couples or individuals travel in order to obtain fertility treatments banned in their home country or state.
Read more about this topic: Cytoplasmic Transfer
Famous quotes containing the words legal and/or status:
“We should stop looking to law to provide the final answer.... Law cannot save us from ourselves.... We have to go out and try to accomplish our goals and resolve disagreements by doing what we think is right. That energy and resourcefulness, not millions of legal cubicles, is what was great about America. Let judgment and personal conviction be important again.”
—Philip K. Howard, U.S. lawyer. The Death of Common Sense: How Law Is Suffocating America, pp. 186-87, Random House (1994)
“screenwriter
Policemen so cherish their status as keepers of the peace and protectors of the public that they have occasionally been known to beat to death those citizens or groups who question that status.”
—David Mamet (b. 1947)