Human Reproductive Cloning Act 19/7/02. By Deirdre Janson-Smith The Human Reproductive Cloning Act (2001) makes the implantation of a cloned embryo into a woman a criminal offence.

The arrival of Dolly the sheep in 1996 set alarm bells ringing all over the world, as it indicated that cloning human beings was no longer science fiction. In 2000, a law court decision ruled that the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act did not clearly prevent the creation of a human embryo by cloning. The ruling was later overturned. However, the government responded swiftly to the first ruling by bringing in a bill specifically to ban reproductive cloning. This was defined as the implantation of an embryo created by any means other than fertilisation.

Cloning involves the transfer of a nucleus from a body cell to a denucleated egg. No fertilisation by sperm is involved. (The argument in the original case had been that an embryo created in this way was not technically an embryo under the terms of the HFE Act.)

By specifying that fertilisation must occur, the Government recognised the usefulness of 'cell nuclear transfer' in cases where a woman carries a mitochondrial genetic disease. (Mitochondria, the cell's energy producers, have their own DNA. Faults in this DNA are responsible for a wide range of inherited disorders.) They argued that implantation of embryos resulting from the transfer of a nucleus of an affected women into a healthy donor egg could be permitted, because the engineered egg would still be fertilised in vitro by the partner's sperm.

The Human Reproductive Cloning Act only applies to implanted embryos. At the same time as bringing it in, the government extended the original HFE Act to permit the creation of cloned embryos for research purposes (therapeutic cloning).