[Congressional Bills 107th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 790 Introduced in Senate (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.

    Congress finds that--
            (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.
``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 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.
    ``(c) Penalties.--
            ``(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:

``16. Human Cloning.........................................     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.
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