Human cloning ban moves toward vote in Alabama Senate
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 Senate Judiciary Committee passed a bill he is sponsoring that makes it a crime to clone human beings. (Brian Lyman/Alabama Reflector)
A bill banning human cloning in Alabama is in position to be voted on in the Alabama Senate.
The Senate Judiciary Committee Tuesday unanimously approved HB 380, sponsored by Rep. Phillip Rigsby, R-Huntsville. The bill would make it a Class C felony, punishable by up to 10 years in prison, to clone or attempt to clone a human being.
'This is another one of those bills that is going to be a protection of what can come,' Rigsby said to the committee during the meeting. 'A little bit of research, a couple of little Google searches, will tell you that the research behind reproductive human cloning is on the horizon, and so this bill will help to put up some guardrails to help protect that.'
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The legislation excludes in-vitro fertilization (IVF) treatments from its cloning definition and allows scientific research on cloning techniques producing 'tissues, organs, plants, or animals other than humans.'
The Alabama House of Representatives approved the measure on April 9.
The person may also be convicted of the crime if the individual merely participates in the process or is involved in the shipment or transfer of embryos or materials.
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