New Japanese genome ethics panel

The Japanese government has created an expert advisory panel to oversee the drafting of ethics guidelines for human genome research, according to a news report in last week's Nature. The panel is expected to produce draft guidelines by the end of the year, say government officials.

Informal guidelines were issued earlier this year by the the Council for Science and Technology, but have so far attracted little support from other agencies. Critics say that that the issuing of informal guidelines without any legal status reflects problems in the Japanese government's approach to regulating biomedicine.

A bill to prohibit human cloning was rejected by the Japanese parliament earlier this year, on the grounds that it was inadequate and scientifically contentious. Policy analyst Shohei Yonemoto claims that committees responsible for drafting research guidelines in Japan lack the necessary capability, autonomy and legitimacy.