Human Cloning for Reproduction and Other Prohibited Practices Act 2003

This Act is the Human Cloning for Reproduction and Other Prohibited Practices Act 2003.

This Act commences on a day or days to be appointed by proclamation.

The object of this Act is to adopt in this State a uniform Australian approach to the prohibition of human cloning for reproduction and certain other practices associated with reproductive technology.

For that purpose, this Act creates a number of offences that mirror offences found in the Prohibition of Human Cloning for Reproduction Act 2002 of the Commonwealth.

In this Act:

animal does not include a human.

chimeric embryo means:

a human embryo into which a cell, or any component part of a cell, of an animal has been introduced, or

a thing declared by the regulations to be a chimeric embryo.

human embryo means a discrete entity that has arisen from either:

the first mitotic division when fertilisation of a human oocyte by a human sperm is complete, or

any other process that initiates organised development of a biological entity with a human nuclear genome or altered human nuclear genome that has the potential to develop up to, or beyond, the stage at which the primitive streak appears,

and has not yet reached 8 weeks of development since the first mitotic division.

human embryo clone means a human embryo that is a genetic copy of another living or dead human, but does not include a human embryo created by the fertilisation of a human egg by human sperm.

human sperm includes human spermatids.

hybrid embryo means:

an embryo created by the fertilisation of a human egg by animal sperm, or

an embryo created by the fertilisation of an animal egg by human sperm, or

a human egg into which the nucleus of an animal cell has been introduced, or

an animal egg into which the nucleus of a human cell has been introduced, or

a thing declared by the regulations to be a hybrid embryo.

licence means a licence issued under section 21 of the Research Involving Human Embryos Act 2002 of the Commonwealth, including a licence issued under section 21 of that Act as applied in this State by the Research Involving Human Embryos (New South Wales) Act 2003.

precursor cell means a cell that has the potential to develop into a human egg or human sperm.

woman means a female human.

For the purposes of establishing that a human embryo clone is a genetic copy of a living or dead human:

it is sufficient to establish that the set of genes in the nuclei of the cells of the living or dead human has been copied, and

it is not necessary to establish that the copy is an identical genetic copy.

For the purposes of the definition of human embryo in subsection (1), in working out the length of the period of development of a human embryo, any period when the development of the embryo is suspended is to be disregarded.

For the purposes of the definition of human embryo clone in subsection (1), a human embryo that results from the technological process known as embryo splitting is taken not to be created by a process of fertilisation of a human egg by human sperm.

A reference in this Act to an embryo (including a human embryo) is a reference to a living embryo.

A reference in this Act to a human egg is a reference to a human oocyte.

A reference in this Act to a human embryo does not include a reference to:

a hybrid embryo, or

a human embryonic stem cell line.

A person commits an offence if the person intentionally places a human embryo clone in the body of a human or the body of an animal.

Maximum penalty: Imprisonment for 15 years.

It is not a defence to an offence under section 5 that the human embryo clone did not survive or could not have survived.

A person commits an offence if the person intentionally creates a human embryo by a process of the fertilisation of a human egg by a human sperm outside the body of a woman, unless the person’s intention in creating the embryo is to attempt to achieve pregnancy in a particular woman.

Maximum penalty: Imprisonment for 15 years.

A defendant does not bear an evidential burden in relation to any matter in subsection (1).

A person commits an offence if:

the person intentionally creates or develops a human embryo by a process of the fertilisation of a human egg by a human sperm outside the body of a woman, and

the human embryo contains genetic material provided by more than 2 persons.

Maximum penalty: Imprisonment for 15 years.

A person commits an offence if the person intentionally develops a human embryo outside the body of a woman for a period of more than 14 days, excluding any period when development is suspended.

Maximum penalty: Imprisonment for 15 years.

A person commits an offence if:

the person alters the genome of a human cell in such a way that the alteration is heritable by descendants of the human whose cell was altered, and

in altering the genome, the person intended the alteration to be heritable by descendants of the human whose cell was altered.

Maximum penalty: Imprisonment for 15 years.

In this section:

human cell includes a human embryonal cell, a human foetal cell, human sperm or a human egg.

A person commits an offence if the person removes a human embryo from the body of a woman, intending to collect a viable human embryo.

Maximum penalty: Imprisonment for 15 years.

A person commits an offence if the person intentionally creates a chimeric embryo.

Maximum penalty: Imprisonment for 15 years.