Editorial

Special Issue - Discussions from Japan on the Moral Status of Human Embryos and Fetuses
Hitoshi ARIMA
Yokohama City University
E-mail: arima@yokohama-cu.ac.jp

The Japanese Association for Philosophicala nd Et h ical Resea rches i n Med ici ne wa s
founded in 1981, nearly 40 years ago. Since
then, the association has published the journal
Igaku Tetsugaku Igaku Rinri (Philosophy ofMedicine and Medical Ethics: PMME) every
year, collecting peer-reviewed articles of highquality written in Japanese by members ofthe association. For this volume of the Journalof Philosophy and Ethics in Health Care andMedicine, the editorial board has selected
three articles from the archive of PMME, each
exemplifying different elements of ongoing
discussions on the moral stat us of humanembryos and fetuses in Japan. I would like toexpress my personal gratitude to the authors who
agreed to prepare English translations and allow
publication of the articles for this special issue.
The members of the editorial board hope thisjournal issue will energize international interestin bioethical discussions in Japan.
In the first article, “A Literature Review ofInstructional Requirements when Requesting
Consent to Use Aborted Fetuses in Research,”
Takiko KATO surveys both international rules
pertaining to the ethics of using fetal tissues
for research purposes as well as governmental
reports and academic articles that discuss theserules. Kato is primarily concerned with theimperative that the possibility of donating fetal
tissue should not influence a women’s decision
regarding abortion and that researchers musteliminate such inf luence from the process ofapproaching potential donors and informing themof the research protocols. Drawing on the resultsof some studies that interviewed fetal tissue
donors in the UK and Japan, Kato points to somerisks in the way potential donors are currently
approached. The paper concludes with concretesuggestions for improvement of the rules.
The second article in this volume, “CurrentMethods of Dead Fetus Disposal in Germany

and their Implications for Japan,” by Yoshichika
MORI, discusses treatment of aborted fetuses in
non-medical contexts. The issue attracted publicattention recently, in Japan, when an obstetricclinic in Yokohama City was reported to havedisposed of aborted fetuses as part of generalwaste. (This case occurred at about the same time
as when the Japanese Ministry of Health, Laborand Welfare organized a committee to discuss theethics of research using aborted human fetuses
and embryos.) Mori shows that regulations on thetreatment of aborted fetuses vary across different
prefectures in Japan and that the relevant laws
and governmental guidelines contain no rules
for dead fetuses resulting from natural abortion
within 12 weeks after conception. The article
discusses how these r ules may violate theinherent dignity of fetuses as well as the moral
rights of parents, by comparing these rules withGerman laws concerning burial and cremation.
Both Kato and Mori received the Young
Researcher’s Award of the Japanese Association
for Philosophical and Ethical Researches inMedicine, in 2013 and 2015, respectively, for theoriginal Japanese versions of these two articles.
The third article in the special issue is“Philosophical Discussion of “Human Life” and“Benefits for Humankind” in the Study of Human
Embr yos,” by Shuku FU NAK I. As Funaki
maintains, discussions on the morality of humanembryonic research typically assume that thevalue of a human life must be balanced againstthe value of benefitting humans generally. Japan’s
2001 Guidelines for Derivation and Utilizationof Human Embryonic Stem (ES) Cells, issued byMinistry of Education, Culture, Sports, Scienceand Technology (MEXT), can be understoodto share the same assumption. The MEXT
Guidelines allow destruction and utilization ofhuman embryos for research purposes, within 14
days after conception. Funaki critically examines
this assumption. For this purpose, he discusses
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Journal of Philosophy and Ethics in Health Care and Medicine, No. 14, December 2020a few distinctions that have prima facie moralsignificance, including the distinction between
the duty to actively confer benefits to a humanindividual and the duty to refrain from harmingor destroying a human individual.
In addition to these articles for the special
issue, this volu me also cont ai ns a ti mely
report from Italy on an important ethical issue
concerning the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
The virus outbreak has caused a serious shortageof medical resources (beds, respirators, etc.),
and the criteria for triage is being intensely
discussed worldwide. In “SARS-COVID-19
Pandemic and Persons with Disabilities in
Italy and Europe,” Giampiero Griffo and Luisa
Borgia, both members of the National Bioethics
Committee of the Republic of San Marino,
express their concern that the triage criteria
recommended by the Italian Scientific Societyof Anaesthesiologists, Intensivists, and Pain
Therapists (SIAARTI) suggest a weaker claim
to medical care for vulnerable populations,
including the elderly and the disabled, due totheir smaller probability of survival and shorter
life expectancy. The article also describes how
the National Bioethics Committee of San Marino
attempted to make triage compatible with moral
rights of vulnerable populations, by adopting its
own recommendations.

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