Alabama House votes to make human cloning a felony
Rep. Phillip Rigsby, R-Huntsville, speaks to colleagues on the floor of the Alabama House of Representatives on Feb. 11, 2025 at the Alabama Statehouse in Montgomery, Alabama. The House passed Rigsby's bill to criminalize human cloning on April 9, 2025. (Brian Lyman/Alabama Reflector)
The Alabama House of Representatives passed a bill Wednesday criminalizing human cloning 71-4, with 22 abstentions.
HB 380, sponsored by Rep. Phillip Rigsby, R-Huntsville, makes it a Class C felony, punishable by up to 10 years in prison, to engage in human cloning. Rigsby said during a brief debate on Wednesday that he is not aware of any human cloning happening in Alabama or the United States, but he said that is the direction science is going.
'We stand at a crossroads in science ethics and human dignity. The prospect of human cloning, once confined to science-fiction, now challenges us to make a firm moral and legal stand,' Rigsby said. 'While technological advances have provided humanity with remarkable medical breakthroughs, not all scientific possibilities align with what is ethical, just and safe.'
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The legislation defines human cloning as 'asexual reproduction.' Rep. Ernie Yarbrough, R-Trinity, expressed concern on how the legislation would affect in vitro fertilization (IVF).
'In theory, it could happen accidentally,' Yarbrough said. 'This is saying you can't be intentionally trying to do so?'
Rigsby said the legislation includes a provision exempting IVF from the definition of asexual reproduction.
'They just wanted to make sure that their practices did not fall under what they do as cloning,' Rigsby said.
The crime includes those cloning humans, and anybody that participates in human cloning, including transportation of a cloned cell, according to the bill.
House Democrats criticized the legislation for being unnecessary. Rep. Juandalynn Givan, D-Birmingham, questioned if other states have similar laws.
'I just didn't know if mass cloning was going on,' she said. 'I don't know of anything or anybody that I've ever seen come through Alabama that I'd want to clone.'
Rep. A.J. McCampbell, D-Demopolis, echoed Givan.
'This sounds like science-fiction, cloning people,' he said.
Rigsby said his bill is modeled after a 2003 law in Arkansas. Rigsby proposed a floor amendment to exclude university research on human organs. It passed 79-1.
'We have some universities that are doing some research on organs and they were a little concerned about line 38, 'generate all or most of the body tissues of a living organism,'' Rigsby said.
The bill now goes to the Alabama Senate.
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