Human reproductive cloning now illegal in the UK

4 December 2001   |   By Dr Alison Stewart   |   News story
The UK government's emergency legislation to ban human reproductive cloning is expected to receive Royal Assent on 4 December, after being passed by the House of Lords on 26 November and the House of Commons on 29 November. The Human Reproductive Cloning Act 2001 prohibits "the placing in a woman of a human embryo which has been created otherwise than by fertilisation". Anyone contravening the law will be liable to a prison sentence of up to 10 years.