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Is political exploitation of preimplantation
genetic testing for aneuploidy (PGT-A) ethical ?
— The conspiracy of Fumihito (the heir
presumptive to the Japanese throne) and his
wife Kiko in the realm of the imperial house of
Japan —
Hirokazu NISHIMURA
https://www.researchgate.net/pro…le/Hirokazu-Nishimura
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8T9SqYG-71E
May 10, 2023
Abstra ct
Here we give an interesting case of gender discrimination by PGT-A.
The Japanese Constitution decrees (Article 2) that the succession to the
throne shoule be hereditary, the details of which are relegated to the imperial
house law. The Imperial House Law claims (Article 1) in turn that the throne is
inherited by a male member of the male line belonging to the imperial line, which
is the fundamental tenet of Salic Law (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salic_law).
It is no longer easy to be stubbornly loyal to the platform of male succession
in confrontation with the uurelenting fact that fewer children are commonplace
and concubines are no longer admitted in modern societies. Indeed, it is no
longer possible at present to …nd a royal family with Salic Law in Europe.
At the end of 2004, an expert meeting on the imperial house law was es-
tablished as an advisory body for then Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi. The
meeting was held seventeen times, …nally giving a report admitting female em-
perors and female succession by expansion of eligibility for succession to the
throne on 24 November 2005. In response to this report, then incumbent Prime
Minister Koizumi said that he would proceed with preparations to submit the
bill to the ordinary session of the Diet in the following …scal year, Liberal De-
mocratic Party secretary-general Tsutomu Takebe, Komeito secretary-general
Tetsuzo Fuyushiba, Japanese Communist Party Secretary-General Tadayoshi
Ichida, and Social Democratic Party leader Mizuho Fukushima all said they
would accept the contents of the report, while Yukio Hatoyama, secretary-
general of the Democratic Party of Japan, had not speci…cally denied this.
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The situation changed drastically when the pregnancy of Princess Kiko of
Akishino at the age of 39 was reported.on 7 February 2006 Seeing this new
development, Prime Minister Koizumi announced at the Budget Committee
meeting the next day that he would not approve the revision of the Imperial
House Law. Prince Hisahito was born with height 48.8cm and weight 2558g on
6 Septemberr 2006. In this way, the sacrosanct principle of male-member-male-
line was barely saved.
Last year, the news that Fumihito confessed that Kiko’s pregnancy with
Hisahito was due to PGT-A shocked every Japanese How to deal with gender
discrimination by PGT-a is a di¢ cult problem. It is legalized in USA, but it is
forbidden in Europe and Japan.In any case, political exploitation of PGT-A is
extremely rare..
This story reminds me of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s Faust, in which
Faust meets the devil Mephisto and makes a contract with him to experience
all the pleasures and sorrows of life in this world in exchange for the submission
of his soul after death. Faust falls in love with a simple town girl, Gretchen, and
eventually conceives a child, while he kills her mother and her elder brother.
Faust really gets every success in this world, so that his soul has no sooner been
about to fall under the arms of Mephisto than is saved by pray of Gretchen in
Heaven. Fumihito and Kiko have succeeded in usurping the throne by making a
contract with Mephisto, but who will pray for them? May God bless Fumihito
and Kiko.
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