This paper explains the variation in policy design processes and the resulting policy-outputs of ‘biopolicies’ implemented within the domain of Assisted Reproductive Technology (ART) and stem cell research for ten European and North-American countries (USA, Canada, UK, Germany, France, Belgium, Switzerland, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain). From the 1980s to today, technological progress has considerably broadened the spectrum of ARTs and related research. Some countries regulated ART early on, mostly addressing issues related to IVF, at a time when therapeutic cloning, egg freezing and pre-implantation genetic diagnosis were still more hypothetical options than daily reality. Other countries addressed ART much later, when such techniques and notably embryonic stem cell research where established. Other countries again have moved from first generation to second generation regulations: some have liberalized initially more restrictive policies, while others have moved from permissive to more restrictive designs. Our contribution explains how and why countries have moved from first to second generation regulations and which factors account for policy stability or change over time. We are particularly interested in how first generation regulations have impacted second generation policies. What accounts for path-dependent regulations and what accounts for incremental or more fundamental policy change? Do second generation regulations converge more than first generation policies and if so why? In order to explain regulations and policy change over time, we analyze the policy preferences of the actors involved in the relevant ART policy network and the institutional rules characterizing the respective polity. Our analysis stresses in particular the influence of party politics, the self-regulation by the physicians, the mobilization of interest groups, the number of institutional arenas involved in the designing process and the nature of decision-making rules (power-sharing versus majority), international competition and technological developments on policies and policy change.
