The following is a guest post by Eduardo Soares, a senior foreign law specialist from Brazil who covers Portuguese-speaking jurisdictions at the Law Library of Congress. Eduardo has also authored the following posts: The Civil Law System – Global Legal Collection Highlights, Laws Behind the Rio Olympics, and New Report on Civic Space Legal Framework in Portugal and Romania. Eduardo has also published FALQ posts on the New Brazilian Code of Civil Procedure, Legal Framework for Fighting Corruption in Brazil (Part I) and Part 2, and Impeachment Process in Brazil.
A new report examining the regulation of stem cell research in selected countries is now available on the Law Library of Congress website. The report contains individual country surveys for Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Mexico, and Panama.
The report discusses regulations these countries have enacted on scientific research in general, as well as stem cell research, and highlights the legislative developments in these areas. A common legal requirement in all jurisdictions is that, before a patient is submitted to treatment, the medical institution must obtain informed consent from the person who will undergo such treatment, where the procedure and its risks are explained. Furthermore, some jurisdictions require that institutions have ethics committees to assess the medical standards of their scientific research.
Controversies involving the use of stem cells have reached the Supreme Court of two jurisdictions, with one upholding the use and the other banning it. As for legislative developments, in some countries, bills have been introduced that totally ban the use of stem cells obtained from human embryos, that promote scientific research in cell therapy, or that propose a new regulatory regime for stem cell-based treatments.
To find out more, we invite you to review our report. This report is part of the Law Library’s Legal Reports collection, prepared by staff and foreign law specialists from the Global Legal Research Center. The collection includes over 4,000 historical and contemporary legal reports on a variety of legal subjects.
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