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 status, legal and/or status:
“In the course of the actual attainment of selfish ends—an attainment conditioned in this way by universality—there is formed a system of complete interdependence, wherein the livelihood, happiness, and legal status of one man is interwoven with the livelihood, happiness, and rights of all. On this system, individual happiness, etc. depend, and only in this connected system are they actualized and secured.”
—Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770–1831)
“It has come to this, that the friends of liberty, the friends of the slave, have shuddered when they have understood that his fate was left to the legal tribunals of the country to be decided. Free men have no faith that justice will be awarded in such a case.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“A genuine Left doesn’t consider anyone’s suffering irrelevant or titillating; nor does it function as a microcosm of capitalist economy, with men competing for power and status at the top, and women doing all the work at the bottom.... Goodbye to all that.”
—Robin Morgan (b. 1941)