title: When is cloning lawful?
abstract: The infertility (Medical Procedures) Act (Victoria) is the first legislation in the common-law world designed to regulate the practice of in vitro fertilization. This act explicitly prohibits "cloning," without providing a definition of this term. The legislative history of the act suggests that it refers only to the production of multiple, identical copies of human individuals. But other scientific procedures, for which cloning is also a correct scientific term, may unintentionally be banned. The act should be amended in order to remove doubts about the position of molecular biologists, cytologists, and cytogeneticists, whose work may involve the production of "clones" of human cells and/or human genes in vitro.
mesh_terms: D026683:Advisory Committees; D001315:Australia; D035843:Biomedical Research; D002999:Clone Cells; D003001:Cloning, Molecular; D005307:Fertilization in Vitro; D005818:Genetic Engineering; D033161:Government Regulation; D006801:Humans; D007883:Legislation, Medical; D018570:Risk Assessment