Volume 1, Issue 3

Because of the rapid advances currently taking place in reproductive technology, Japan is being pressed to adjust its conventional approach to reproductive medicine. One example of the innovations in the technology is the reproductive technique known as preimplantation genetic diagnosis, or PGD ( Chakushozen shindan or Jyuseiran shindan in Japanese), which makes it possible to select ‘healthy’ embryos for pregnancy. PGD is currently permitted in Japan under a set of guidelines issued by the Japan Society of Obstetrics and Gynaecology in 1998. PGD is seen by some as a reproductive technique that can help couples who are at high risk of passing on serious genetic disorders to their offspring. However, it is a contested technology. Concerns are increasingly being raised about the lack of sufficient public debate and policy discussion concerning the test's ethical and social implications. The need for policy discussions and a comprehensive legal system to control all areas of reproductive medicine, including PGD, should be more widely addressed.

Since the introduction of DNA profiling the methods have change considerably and so have the way that results are expressed. There have been many different techniques used to produce a DNA profile. The starting point was multilocus probes, followed by single locus probes, neither of which are now widely used, and then Short tandem Repeat (STR) analysis. Whatever the next step in DNA analysis is, the methods of interpretation will remain essentially the same. We rely on the concept and reality of the benign state for this to be used for the good of society, not the oppression of individuals or groups.