Is Human Cloning Legal?

The short answer

In most countries, reproductive human cloning — attempting to produce a baby genetically very similar to an existing person — is either expressly prohibited or effectively impossible under existing rules governing assisted reproduction and embryo research. Research uses of cloning techniques, such as therapeutic cloning, are treated very differently depending on the jurisdiction: permitted under licence in some, restricted in others, and banned outright in others still.

The international layer

Several international instruments shape the global conversation. None creates a single global ban on its own, but together they have heavily influenced national law.

• UNESCO’s Universal Declaration on the Human Genome and Human Rights (1997) describes practices contrary to human dignity, including reproductive cloning, as not to be permitted.
• The United Nations Declaration on Human Cloning (2005) is a non-binding declaration calling on member states to prohibit forms of human cloning incompatible with human dignity and the protection of human life.
• The Council of Europe’s Additional Protocol to the Oviedo Convention (1998) explicitly prohibits any intervention seeking to create a human being genetically identical to another, living or dead, among the states that have ratified it.
• The World Health Organization has repeatedly stated that reproductive human cloning is ethically unacceptable.

Patterns in national law

National laws do not all line up neatly, but a few patterns recur:

• Express prohibitions of reproductive cloning. Many countries criminalise attempts to create a child by cloning. The penalties and definitions vary.
• Regulated research. Several jurisdictions allow research that uses cloning techniques (including SCNT) under licence, subject to limits on embryo development and a strict prohibition on reproductive use.
• Comprehensive bans. Some countries prohibit all forms of human cloning, including research forms.
• Indirect restriction. Even where there is no specific cloning statute, broader laws on assisted reproduction, embryo research, or health professional conduct often make reproductive cloning effectively impossible.
• Funding restrictions. In some places, what is legal in principle is sharply limited in practice because public funding cannot be used for it.

Why “banned” is rarely the whole story

News stories often describe cloning as “banned in X” or “allowed in Y.” The reality is usually more complicated:

• A country may prohibit reproductive cloning while permitting therapeutic research under licence.
• A country may permit research in principle but restrict funding, licensing, or oversight enough that little research actually happens.
• A country may have no cloning-specific law but still regulate the practice through medical-licensing rules, embryo-research laws, or general criminal law.

This is one reason serious reporting on cloning policy spends so much time on definitions.

What the law generally does not protect

Three points are worth flagging:

• There is no recognised legal right to be cloned. Reproductive cloning is not treated as part of a general right to procreate.
• There is no recognised legal right to clone another person. Cloning a third party without their consent would face overlapping legal problems under privacy, bioethics, and reproductive-health rules.
• There is no recognised legal status for “genetic preservation” services in most jurisdictions. Claims of services that would allow people to bank tissue for later cloning should be treated with strong scepticism. We do not promote, list, or link to any such services.

Where to look for primary sources

• National statutes and regulations on assisted reproduction and embryo research.
• UNESCO and Council of Europe instruments.
• National bioethics committee reports.
• Government health and research agencies.

Related reading

• Reproductive cloning
• Cloning ethics
• Human cloning and family law: a beginner’s overview
• Public opinion and human cloning