

Follow me here for a minute. The state is controlled by the homunculi/Father
who wants people to use alchemy to do dangerous research especially human
transmutation to make philosopher stones.

Why would they have laws that forbid it in their country? Seems counter
productive to their goals.


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fullmetal-alchemist-series
Why is human transmutation illegal or that matter have alchemy laws?


[@Madara](https://anime.stackexchange.com/users/27/madara-uchiha) basically
[hit the nail on the
head](https://anime.stackexchange.com/questions/13404/why-is-human-
transmutation-illegal-or-that-matter-have-alchemy-laws#comment16804_13404)
here, but I thought I'd elaborate a bit.

**_Unmarked spoilers follow._**

Father wants people making philosopher's stones _for his goals_. He has his
end goal of the Nationwide Transmutation Circle, and he has a plan to get it.
This plan involves the military laboratories (especially lab #5), as well as
waging wars (such as the blood crest in the North), and a few other things.

But let's consider the very first episode of _Brotherhood_ , in which Isaac
McDougal, by way of philosopher's stone, launched an attack against the
military, attempting to completely freeze over Central. This was _clearly_
contrary to Father's goals, as its motive was to destroy Central by ice,
beneath which Father lived.

[![Great Scott that's a lot of
icicles!](https://i.stack.imgur.com/LJy91m.png)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/LJy91.png)

And later in the series, the truth behind the military's law of, "you must not
create humans," is revealed: they are not concerned with ethics, but rather
**to prevent people from creating an army which would oppose the
government's** , and subsequently, oppose Father.

So, like @Madara initially mentioned: killing people in reality is illegal,
yet countries wage war because the governments have their own motives, which
they believe are above those of the citizens. Yet, we can't just have citizens
going around massacring others, can we? (Hint: The answer is no.)


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Morals predate father's existence he is only in his [5th
century](http://fma.wikia.com/wiki/Father) and its likely that some other
person of greater moral fiber and less pride created the ethical system which
was then codified into law. Fundamental principles of societies are hard to
change when revolutions are hidden. Revisions to history, ethics and taboos
would be extremely difficult to change. Just look at [foot
binding](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foot_binding) as an example of culture
resisting an opposing government and even medicine.


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