The Human Reproductive Cloning Act 2001 (c. 23) is an Act of the

Parliament of the United Kingdom The Parliament of the United Kingdom is the supreme legislative body of the United Kingdom, the Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories. It meets at the Palace of Westminster, London. It alone possesses legislative suprema ...

"to prohibit the placing in a woman of a human embryo which has been created otherwise than by fertilisation". The act received

Royal Assent Royal assent is the method by which a monarch formally approves an act of the legislature, either directly or through an official acting on the monarch's behalf. In some jurisdictions, royal assent is equivalent to promulgation, while in oth ...

on 4 December 2001. On 14 January 2001 the British government passed The Human Fertilisation and Embryology (Research Purposes) Regulations 2001 to amend the

Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 1990 The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 1990 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It created the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority which is in charge of human embryo research, along with monitoring and licensing fertil ...

by extending allowable reasons for embryo research to permit research around stem cells and cell nuclear replacement, thus allowing

therapeutic cloning In genetics and developmental biology, somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT) is a laboratory strategy for creating a viable embryo from a body cell and an egg cell. The technique consists of taking an enucleated oocyte (egg cell) and implantin ...

. However, on 15 November 2001, a

pro-life Anti-abortion movements, also self-styled as pro-life or abolitionist movements, are involved in the abortion debate advocating against the practice of abortion and its legality. Many anti-abortion movements began as countermovements in respon ...

group won a High Court legal challenge, which struck down the regulation and effectively left all forms of cloning unregulated in the UK. Their hope was that Parliament would fill this gap by passing prohibitive legislation. Parliament was quick to pass the Human Reproductive Cloning Act 2001 in order to explicitly prohibit reproductive cloning. The remaining gap with regard to therapeutic cloning was closed when the appeals courts reversed the previous decision of the High Court. The act was repealed and replaced by the

Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 2008 The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 2008 (c 22) is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. The Act constitutes a major review and update of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 1990. According to the Department of Health th ...

References

External links

* {{HFEA Acts of the Parliament of the United Kingdom concerning healthcare Cloning Genetics in the United Kingdom Medical regulation in the United Kingdom Repealed United Kingdom Acts of Parliament United Kingdom Acts of Parliament 2001