[Congressional Bills 107th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 2505 Introduced in House (IH)]







107th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 2505

   To amend title 18, United States Code, to prohibit human cloning.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             July 16, 2001

  Mr. Weldon of Florida (for himself, Mr. Stupak, Mr. Kerns, and Mr. 
  Kucinich) introduced the following bill; which was 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. 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.
``301. Definitions.
``302. Prohibition on human cloning.
``Sec. 301. Definitions
    ``In this chapter:
            ``(1) Human cloning.--The term `human cloning' means human 
        asexual reproduction, accomplished by introducing nuclear 
        material from one or more human somatic cells into a fertilized 
        or unfertilized oocyte whose nuclear material has been removed 
        or inactivated so as to produce a living organism (at any stage 
        of development) that is genetically virtually identical to an 
        existing or previously exisiting human organism.
            ``(2) Asexual reproduction.--The term `asexual 
        reproduction' means reproduction not initiated by the union of 
        oocyte and sperm.
            ``(3) 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, knowingly--
            ``(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 for any purpose an embryo produced 
        by human cloning or any product derived from such embryo.
    ``(b) Importation.--It shall be unlawful for any person or entity, 
public or private, knowingly to import for any purpose an embryo 
produced by human cloning, or any product derived from such embryo.
    ``(c) Penalties.--
            ``(1) Criminal penalty.--Any person or entity who violates 
        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 violates 
        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 restricts 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:

``16. Human Cloning.........................................     301''.
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