Ironically I’m sitting in a cottage in South West Scotland, waiting for the rain to pass thinking about cloning and Australian Law. We arrived yesterday, after a lovely time in Bournemouth UK.
Each country has different laws on human cloning. A good resource for the legislation across the world can be found on the Australian Stem Cell Centre Website. In Australia it is legal to use excess embryos created using IVF treatment for the purpose of stem cell research. There are stringent guidelines for the use of embryos and researchers must have a license to conduct any form of trial. Creating cloned humans is illegal in Australia as in most countries. (Source: Australian Stem Cell Centre).
Why are the laws so stringent?
Polarised opinions about what constitutes a human life is the key issue in terms of the ethical debate and the subsequent laws on stem cell research. Some believe that a blastocyst constitutes a human life and should not be used for the purpose of research which ultimately destroys that “life”. Others believe that the blastocyst only represents human potential, which may not survive to develop even in normal reproduction. Law makers across the world have been tasked with balancing both sides of the argument, allowing research and development to take place, yet monitoring it strictly enough to prevent a cascade to human reproductive cloning.
Next time I want to explore what the United Nations (UN) says about human cloning, and how the legality of human cloning across the world has been affected by the UN Declaration on Human Cloning.
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