S 790 IS
107th CONGRESS
1st Session
S. 790
To amend title 18, United States Code, to prohibit human
cloning.
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
April 26, 2001
Mr. BROWNBACK (for himself, Mr. BOND, and Mr. SMITH of New Hampshire)
introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the
Committee on the Judiciary
A BILL
To amend title 18, United States Code, to prohibit human
cloning.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United
States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the `Human Cloning Prohibition Act of 2001'.
SEC. 2. FINDINGS.
(1) some individuals have announced that they will attempt to clone
human beings using the technique known as somatic cell nuclear transfer
already used with limited success in cloning sheep and other animals;
(2) nearly all scientists agree that such attempts pose a massive risk
of producing children who are stillborn, unhealthy, or severely disabled,
and considered opinion is virtually unanimous that such attempts are
therefore grossly irresponsible and unethical;
(3) efforts to create human beings by cloning mark a new and decisive
step toward turning human reproduction into a manufacturing process in which
children are made in laboratories to preordained specifications and,
potentially, in multiple copies;
(4) creating cloned live-born human children (sometimes called
`reproductive cloning') begins by creating cloned human embryos, a process
which some also propose as a way to create embryos for research or as
sources of cells and tissues for possible treatment of other humans;
(5) the prospect of creating new human life solely to be exploited and
destroyed in this way has been condemned on moral grounds by many, as
displaying a profound disrespect for life, and recent scientific advances
indicate that there are fruitful and morally unproblematic alternatives to
this approach;
(6)(A) it will be nearly impossible to ban attempts at `reproductive
cloning' once cloned human embryos are available in the laboratory
because--
(i) cloning would take place within the privacy of a doctor-patient
relationship;
(ii) the transfer of embryos to begin a pregnancy is a simple
procedure; and
(iii) any government effort to prevent the transfer of an existing
embryo, or to prevent birth once transfer has occurred would raise
substantial moral, legal, and practical issues; and
(B) so, in order to be effective, a ban on human cloning must stop the
cloning process at the beginning; and
(7) collaborative efforts to perform human cloning are conducted in ways
that affect interstate and even international commerce, and the legal status
of cloning will have a great impact on how biotechnology companies direct
their resources for research and development.
SEC. 3. PROHIBITION ON HUMAN CLONING.
(a) IN GENERAL- Title 18, United States Code, is amended by inserting
after chapter 15, the following:
`CHAPTER 16--HUMAN CLONING
`Sec.
`302. Prohibition on human cloning.
`Sec. 301. Definitions
`(1) HUMAN CLONING- The term `human cloning' means human asexual
reproduction, accomplished by introducing the nuclear material of a human
somatic cell into a fertilized or unfertilized oocyte whose nucleus has been
removed or inactivated to produce a living organism (at any stage of
development) with a human or predominantly human genetic constitution.
`(2) SOMATIC CELL- The term `somatic cell' means a diploid cell (having
a complete set of chromosomes) obtained or derived from a living or deceased
human body at any stage of development.
`Sec. 302. Prohibition on human cloning
`(a) IN GENERAL- It shall be unlawful for any person or entity, public or
private, in or affecting interstate commerce--
`(1) to perform or attempt to perform human cloning;
`(2) to participate in an attempt to perform human cloning; or
`(3) to ship or receive the product of human cloning for any
purpose.
`(b) IMPORTATION- It shall be unlawful for any person or entity, public or
private, to import the product of human cloning for any purpose.
`(1) IN GENERAL- Any person or entity that is convicted of violating any
provision of this section shall be fined under this section or imprisoned
not more than 10 years, or both.
`(2) CIVIL PENALTY- Any person or entity that is convicted of violating
any provision of this section shall be subject to, in the case of a
violation that involves the derivation of a pecuniary gain, a civil penalty
of not less than $1,000,000 and not more than an amount equal to the amount
of the gross gain multiplied by 2, if that amount is greater than
$1,000,000.
`(d) SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH- Nothing in this section shall restrict areas of
scientific research not specifically prohibited by this section, including
research in the use of nuclear transfer or other cloning techniques to produce
molecules, DNA, cells other than human embryos, tissues, organs, plants, or
animals other than humans.'.
(b) CLERICAL AMENDMENT- The table of chapters for part I of title 18,
United States Code, is amended by inserting after the item relating to chapter
15 the following:
301'.
SEC. 4. SENSE OF CONGRESS.
It is the sense of Congress that--
(1) the Federal Government should advocate for and join an international
effort to prohibit human cloning, as defined in section 301 of title 18,
United States Code, as added by this Act; and
(2) the President should commission a study, to be conducted by the
National Bioethics Advisory Commission or a successor group, of the
arguments for and against the use of cloning to produce human embryos solely
for research, which study should--
(A) include a discussion of the need (if any) for human cloning to
produce medical advances, the ethical and legal aspects of human cloning,
and the possible impact of any decision to permit human cloning for
research upon efforts to prevent human cloning for reproductive
purposes;
(B) include a review of new developments in cloning technology which
may require that technical changes be made to section 3 of this Act, to
maintain the effectiveness of this Act in prohibiting the asexual
production of a new human organism that is genetically virtually identical
to an existing or previously existing human being; and
(C) be submitted to Congress and the President for review not later
than 5 years after the date of enactment of this legislation.
END