Abstract
In 2003, the United Kingdom and Japan had adopted relatively similar approaches to human embryonic stem cells science. The decade since has witnessed significant divergence in their national policies as differing responses to ethical questions about research use of human embryos emerged. The United Kingdom pursued a vision of ‘institutionally accredited stem cells’ by reconfiguring the role of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority and establishing the UK Stem Cell Bank. In contrast, Japan followed a vision of ‘technically advanced stem cells’ by developing induced pluripotent stem cells and supporting its research programs enthusiastically. Our research – drawing upon extensive fieldwork in both countries – demonstrates the socio-technical arrangements developed to instantiate these visions and articulates their divergence while at the same time revealing their connectedness. This relationship becomes progressively evident as the two visions face each other in the politics of standardization in global stem cell science. Drawing on Franklin’s concept of local/global biological, we discuss the connectedness of the two local arrangements. In so doing, we explicate the future challenges for both countries as they need to demonstrate the significance of their visions in this global enterprise, while the success of one would likely undermine the significance of the other.
Highlights
In 2003, the UK Royal Academy of Engineering sent a mission to Japan resulting in the report “The Japanese Approach to Tissue Engineering”
While the induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cell bank currently lacks the transparency in governance and the breadth of functionality seen at the UK Stem Cell Bank, we suggest it may still develop to become recognized as a stable site for sourcing safe and efficient cell lines, should further research demonstrate the clinical usefulness of iPS cells
More importantly, the expansion would not have been possible if stem cell science did not attract political and economic interests on a global scale, that is, in Franklin’s (2005) term, the emergence of the global biological enterprise
Summary
In 2003, the UK Royal Academy of Engineering sent a mission to Japan resulting in the report “The Japanese Approach to Tissue Engineering”. While we agree with this statement from a 2003 perspective, in this article we argue the two countries subsequently took quite different approaches to dealing with the embryo issue, each of them underpinned by a globally recognized socio-technical arrangement: in the United Kingdom, the Human Fertilisation and Embryology (HFE) Act amendments and establishment of the UK Stem Cell Bank, and in Japan, the development of induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells and the subsequent policy shift Both of these arrangements attracted the attentions of many other countries, and have been adopted in some, including the establishment of national stem cell banks in Spain and the promotion of iPS cell research in the United States (Stephens et al, 2011a, 2013; Hammond-Browning and Stephens, 2013). To Franklin, stem cells can be understood as a global/local biological:
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