Since the turn of the millennium, biotechnology has been undergoing a paradigm shift. While conventional medicine seeks to kill germs, relieve patients of symptoms, or remove failed organs, genomic medicine is seeking to identify health risks inherent in each individual’s genetic make-up and intervene directly at that level. Likewise, while traditional organ transplantation endeavors to surpass organ failures under the scarcity of available organs that match, stem cell sciences are beginning to produce matching human tissues and use them to reverse the process of organ failures. Although the prospect of medical progress seems to promise an encouraging future of healthcare, these paradigmatic shifts have also raised ethical, legal and social concerns. Because the research and application of genomic medicine requires collecting and analyzing sensitive genetic information that implicate health risks not only of individuals, but also of their family members or the ethnic group they belong to, profound ethical, legal, and social issues arise which require re-examination of research ethics as well as protection against privacy violation and social discrimination. Likewise, because the development of stem cell sciences often utilizes human embryos that enjoy special protection in many cultures, the very permissibility of embryonic stem cell research has raised fierce policy debates in Europe, the USA, and many other countries. Despite these ethical, legal, and social concerns, East Asian governments have been more open toward funding and providing favorable policy environment for the development of biotechnology. Except for South Korea, East Asian countries have no deep-rooted tradition in Christianity which has led many countries in the world to be torn between adhering to fundamental religious values and allowing human