Ethical, legal, regulatory, and policy issues concerning embryoids: a systematic review of the literature

Recent advances in methods to culture pluripotent stem cells to model human development have resulted in entities that increasingly have recapitulated advanced stages of early embryo development. These entities, referred to by numerous terms such as embryoids, are becoming more sophisticated and could resemble human embryos ever more closely as research progresses. This paper reports a systematic review of the ethical, legal, regulatory, and policy questions and concerns found in the literature concerning human embryoid research published from 2016 to 2022. We identified 56 papers that use 53 distinct names or terms to refer to embryoids and four broad categories of ethical, legal, regulatory, or policy considerations in the literature: research justifications/benefits, ethical significance or moral status, permissible use, and regulatory and oversight challenges. Analyzing the full range of issues is a critical step toward fostering more robust ethical, legal, and social implications research in this emerging area and toward developing appropriate oversight.

Automated summary

Recent advances in pluripotent stem cell culture have led to the development of entities, known as embryoids, which closely resemble advanced stages of early embryo development. A systematic review of literature from 2016 to 2022 identified four categories of ethical, legal, regulatory, and policy considerations in human embryoid research: research justifications/benefits, ethical significance or moral status, permissible use, and regulatory and oversight challenges. Analyzing these issues is crucial for advancing ethical and regulatory frameworks in this emerging field.