Foreword / Thomas H. Murray -- Contested cells: global perspectives on the stem cell debate - a critical introduction / Benjamin Capps and Alastair V. Campbell -- A case study of experimental stem cell therapy and the risks of over-regulation / Anthony Hollander -- Stem cell technology: from research regulation to clinical applications / Donald Chalmers -- Legal imperialism in the regulation of stem cell research and therapy: the problem of extraterritorial jurisdiction / Daniela Cutas and Christian Munthe -- Governing cloning: United Nations' debates and the institutional context of standards / W. Calvin Ho -- Sociological reflections on ethics, embryonic stem cells and translational research / Claire Williams and Steven Wainwright -- Rhetoric, power and legitimacy in public discourse: a critical analysis of the public debate surrounding the review of embryo research and cloning legislation in Australia in 2005 / Tamra Lysaght and Ian Kerridge -- New developments in stem cell science: iPS cells and the challenge to consent / Jonathan Mackenney and Benjamin Capps -- 'Reasonable suffering': the application of stem cell technologies to non-human animals / James Yeates -- Ontological status of human-non-human embryonic chimeras / Josef Kurê -- Religion, civic virtue and the stem cell debate / Teoh Chin Leong -- Rejuvenated federalism: state-based stem cell research policy / Geoffrey Lomax -- Hybrid embryos - ethics, law and rhetoric in the United Kingdom's stem cell policy / Natasha Hammond-Browning and S?ren Holm -- Stem cell research and its clinical application in China: interactions between science, ethics and society / Renzong Qiu and Xiaomei Zhai -- Neither a 'person' nor a 'thing': the controversy concerning the moral and legal status of human embryos in Japan / Satoshi Kodama and Akira Akabayashi -- A tale of two countries: Czech and Slovak stem cell biopolicies / Peter Sy?kora606 -- Stem cells