Also there was much stimulation to medical ethics from the introduction of assisted reproductive technology into clinical practice, and from the pressure exerted by groups concerned that modern genetics might be abused like past racial eugenic policies. In fact, we can trace many of the underlying questions, and approaches to solving them, to philosophers and religions that date from antiquity. In Japan, there has been concern about bioethical issues such as environmental pollution, suspicion of the medical profession and its paternalism, and the question of brain death. However, this concern is only just beginning to give rise to public discussion of bioethics. This delay may be more related to the structure of Japanese society than to any difference between individual person's attitudes in Japan and Western countries.
Many people perceive simultaneously both benefits and risks from science and technology.
The diversity of reasoning exposed in the survey was independent of education or age, and similar diversity of reasoning was found among members of the public, high school biology teachers, and scientists. Perhaps the most well known difference in bioethical policy between Japan and abroad is the policy regarding brain death. People have been told that Japanese people rejected organ transplanation from brain dead donors. There has been some trend towards further acceptance in this time, but about half the people have been willing to donate organs for about a decade. The consent rate in Western countries is only somewhat higher, as is the refusal rate, with the rate in practice being much lower than in theory.