Ethical guidelines on the use of scientific research were urgently needed with Japanese scientists close to developing an artificial womb, a Green TD, Mr John Gormley, said yesterday.
While he welcomed any development which could mean an end to premature births and miscarriages, Mr Gormley warned that the breakthrough was just "a short step from a situation where we can have full gestation without any contact with a natural mother's womb. Science is running ahead of ethics."