ISRAEL: Government Moves To Extend Law Prohibiting Human Cloning

[Murray Charters <mcharters@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

ISRAEL: Government Moves To Extend Law Prohibiting Human Cloning
By Gideon Alon, Haaretz Correspondent

Sun., December 21, 2003 Kislev 26, 5764 Israel Time:  20:28  (GMT+2)

The government on Sunday decided to instruct the Knesset Constitution, Law and 
Justice Committee to approve the
extension of a law prohibiting genetic intervention (cloning) and to pass on 
the decision to the Knesset plenum.

The government decision was taken due to the fact that the law, legislated in 
1998 and put in effect for a period of
five years, was about to expire.

The purpose of the five year limit was to enable a reassessment of scientific 
and social developments in the field. The
current law limits scientific research in cloning and forbids enabling the 
birth of a genetically cloned human. The law
also prohibits human cloning using reproductive cells that have undergone 
genetic manipulation.

The Knesset committee was asked to extend the law for a period of five more 
years, and to clarify that the main
prohibition by the law is on actions aimed at or related to cloning human 
beings. The committee was also asked to set
harsher penalties for violation of the law.

SOURCE: Ha'aretz, Israel


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