NORTH AMERICA

  Canada

         Canada/Government, An Act Respecting Assisted Human Reproduction and Related Research (Bill C-6), Ottawa, March 29, 2004, http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/english/pdf/protection/ahr/C-6_4_RA.pdf

 

The AHR Act prohibits human cloning and inheritable genetic modification among other activities and procedures. The Act provides controls for AHR-related research and the establishment of the Assisted Human Reproduction Agency of Canada, responsible for licensing, inspecting and enforcing activities controlled under the Act.

 

Cloning

5. (1) No person shall knowingly

(a) create a human clone by using any technique, or transplant a human clone into a human being or into any non-human life form or artificial device;

(b) create an in vitro embryo for any purpose other than creating a human being

or improving or providing instruction in assisted reproduction procedures;

(c) for the purpose of creating a human being, create an embryo from a cell or part of a cell taken from an embryo or foetus or transplant an embryo so created into a human being;�

 

Inheritable Genetic Modification

�(f) alter the genome of a cell of a human being or in vitro embryo such that the alteration is capable of being transmitted to descendants;�

  

United States

         At the federal level, the House of Representatives passed legislation endorsed by President Bush that would ban human cloning for reproductive and therapeutic purposes. In August 2000 it was rejected by the Senate for disagreement on prohibition on therapeutic cloning.

         On 10 July 2002, the President�s Council on Bioethics produced a report which endorses the prohibition of reproductive cloning and a moratorium instead of prohibition of therapeutic cloning.  

         In 2003 President Bush reiterated his call for the Senate to adopt legislation and reaffirmed his support to prohibition of reproductive and therapeutic cloning.

          Legislation to ban human cloning has been passed in eleven states� Arkansas, California, Iowa, Louisiana, Michigan, Missouri, New Jersey, North and South Dakota, Rhode Island and Virginia. At least a dozen other states are considering cloning legislation. (see http://www.thehumanfuture.com/topics/humancloning/clon_policy.htm)