Current State Laws on Human Cloning
California
Cal. Health & Safety Code, §§24185 to 24189.
Bans efforts to create a human being by utilizing somatic cell nuclear transfer "for the purpose of, or to implant, the resulting product to initiate a pregnancy that could result in the birth of a human being." Ban is to expire January 1, 2003 unless extended by legislature.
Louisiana
La. Rev. Stat. Ann. tit. 40 §§1299.36 to 1299.36.6.
Forbids any person to "clone or attempt to clone a human being," and forbids a health facility or agency to "allow any individual to clone or attempt to clone a human being in a facility owned or operated by the health facility or agency." "Clone" is defined as in California law, to involve an intent to initiate a pregnancy. However, a separate state law prohibits intentionally destroying a viable fertilized ovum, and requires that "[n]o in vitro fertilized human ovum will be farmed or cultured solely for research purposes or any other purposes." La. Rev. Stat. Ann. tit. 9, §§ 129, 122. Whether this prohibits use of cloned embryos for research depends on how courts will interpret the phrase "fertilized human ovum."
Michigan
Mich. Comp. Laws §§333.16274, 333.16275, 750.430a.
Forbids any individual to "engage in or attempt to engage in human cloning," applying civil penalties (up to a $10 million fine) and criminal penalties ($10 million fine and up to ten years in prison). "Human cloning" means "the use of human somatic cell nuclear transfer technology to produce a human embryo." §333.16274(5). This law clearly forbids creating a cloned human embryo for any purpose, including research. A separate state law also forbids using a live human embryo "for nontherapeutic research if... the research substantially jeopardizes the life or health of the embryo..." Performing such research is a felony. §§333.2685 (1), 333.2691.
Rhode Island
R.I. Gen. Laws §23-16.4-2 to 23-16.4-4.
Bans use of somatic cell nuclear transfer "for the purpose of initiating or attempting to initiate a human pregnancy," as well as the creation of "genetically identical human beings" by "dividing a blastocyst, zygote, or embryo." The law seems to ban cloning by nuclear transfer only if done to initiate a pregnancy. However, a separate law prohibits the use of "any live human fetus, whether before or after expulsion from its mother's womb, for scientific, laboratory research, or other kind of experimentation." R.I. Gen. Laws §11-54-1(a). An analysis commissioned by the National Bioethics Advisory Commission interprets this law to "ban research on in vitro embryos altogether," apparently including cloned embryos. NBAC, Ethical Issues in Human Stem Cell Research, Vol. II, pages A-4, A-10.
South Dakota
S.D. Codified Laws §§34-14-16 to 34-14-20.
Under this law it is a crime to "conduct nontherapeutic research that destroys a human embryo" or that "subjects a human embryo to substantial risk of injury or death." "Nontherapeutic research" means "research that is not intended to help preserve the life and health of the particular embryo subjected to risk." A person also may not "use for research purposes cells or tissues that the person knows were obtained by performing" such harmful nontherapeutic research. "Human embryo" is defined as "a living organism of the species Homo sapiens at the earliest stages of development (including the single-celled stage) that is not located in a woman's body." The law applies to human embryos regardless of whether they arose from fertilization, so it certainly bans experimental cloning in which human embryos are destroyed, as well as any use of cells or tissues obtained by destroying them. Given the current survival rate of human embryos created by cloning, it also has the effect at present of banning the basic research in human cloning designed to prepare the way for attempts at cloning for live birth.
Virginia
Va. Code Ann. §§32.1-162.21, 32.1-162.22.
The law forbids "human cloning," defined as "the creation of or attempt to create a human being by transferring the nucleus from a human cell from whatever source into an oocyte from which the nucleus has been removed." It also forbids anyone to "implant or attempt to implant the product of somatic cell nuclear transfer into a uterine environment so as to initiate a pregnancy..." Exempted from the ban are research or practices involving the use of somatic cell nuclear transfer or other cloning technologies "to clone molecules, including DNA, cells, or tissues..." The scope of the law is not entirely clear, but it seems intended to ban use of somatic cell nuclear transfer cloning to make a human organism at any stage of development, and separately to ban efforts to implant the organism in a uterus.
Several other states may ban research that harms or destroys cloned human embryos, depending on how their laws on embryo research or fetal experimentation are interpreted:
* Maine prohibits the use of "any live human fetus, whether intrauterine or extrauterine... for scientific experimentation or any form of experimentation..." Me. Rev. Stat. tit. 22 §1593. "Fetus" is not defined to clarify whether it includes the embryo.
* Like Rhode Island (mentioned above), Massachusetts and North Dakota ban research on a live human fetus, "whether before or after expulsion from its mother's womb." Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 112 §12J; N.D. Cent. Code §14-02.2-01(1). These state laws could ban experiments using cloned embryos, depending on whether they apply to the time before the embryo is placed in a mother's womb. The Massachusetts law specifically includes "an embryo" in its definition of "fetus."
* Like Louisiana (mentioned above), Minnesota and Pennsylvania clearly ban experiments that pose a substantial risk of harm to the early human embryo. However, their protection extends "from fertilization" onward, which may inadvertently fail to cover the embryo produced by cloning. Minn. Stat. §§145.421, 145.422; Pa. Cons. Stat. tit. 18 §§3203, 3216.
Overview
* Two states (Michigan and Virginia) ban human cloning for any purpose.
* Three other states (Louisiana, Rhode Island and California) ban cloning for the purpose of initiating a pregnancy. Two of these states, Louisiana and Rhode Island, may also ban use of cloned human embryos in harmful research by a separate law on embryo research.
* In addition, at least one state (South Dakota) clearly bans use of any human embryos (including cloned human embryos) in research that could harm them. Laws that may be interpreted to have this effect exist in five states that have no specific law on cloning as such (Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota, North Dakota, Pennsylvania).
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