Inherited regulation for advanced ARTs: Comparing jurisdictions' applications of existing governance regimes to emerging reproductive technologies

Abstract

Over the past 5 years, advanced assisted reproductive technologies (ARTs), such as mitochondrial replacement therapies (MRTs) and heritable human genome editing (HHGE), have raised global policy concerns and fears of 'unregulated' proliferation. Yet, few innovations are ever truly unregulated and more often fall within the scope of one or more pre-existing regulatory regimes, a process referred to as 'inherited regulation'. While the United Kingdom has enacted new legislation to specifically authorize and closely regulate MRTs, many jurisdictions will likely default to current oversight systems to manage advanced ARTs. This article evaluates and compares how several jurisdictions have already used four types of inherited regulatory regimes to manage MRTs and HHGE. Cases are drawn from jurisdictions where inherited regulatory interventions on advanced ARTs have taken place (USA, Greece, Ukraine, China, and Russia) and include jurisdictions closely connected with those cases (Mexico and Spain). When accounting for political, cultural, and religious contexts, many of these inherited regimes offer promise as starting points for governance of advanced ARTs, yet each will require further adjustments and tailoring to adequately manage the benefits and risks of these powerful innovations.