Lara Giddings, MP
Minister for Health and Human Services
Tuesday, 21 August 2007
Human Cloning Bill
The Minister for Health and Human Services, Lara Giddings, today introduced into State Parliament the Human Cloning and other Prohibited Practices Amendment Bill 2007.
Ms Giddings said the Bill mirrors amendments made to corresponding Commonwealth and Victorian legislation, and is expected to be debated in late-September.
“The amendments would enable new research that might lead to better treatments for hitherto difficult to treat conditions such as Parkinson’s disease, spinal cord injury and type 1 diabetes,” Ms Giddings said.
“The Tasmanian Bill is similar to legislation already passed by the Federal and Victorian parliaments, and currently before the New South Wales parliament.
“The Commonwealth Bill, which passed in December 2006 and came into effect last month, was the subject of a conscience vote and the same will happen here.
“This issue has generated considerable public debate wherever legislation has been introduced and a similar level of interest can be expected here.
“I hope debate in Tasmanian will be reasoned and moderate, and that people on both sides will respect the views of others.
In particular, the Bill retains existing prohibitions on:
- human reproductive cloning;
- developing a human embryo outside the body of a woman for more than 14 days;
- collecting a viable human embryo from the body of a woman;
- creating or developing a human embryo by fertilisation of a human egg by a human sperm outside the body of a woman for any purpose other than the assisted reproductive technology treatment of a particular woman;
- placing in the body of a woman any embryo other than a human embryo created by the fertilisation of a human egg by a human sperm; and
- commercial trading in human eggs, human sperm or human embryos;
and
- enables somatic cell nuclear transfer (also known as therapeutic cloning) and other practices involving the creation of human embryos other than by the fertilisation of human eggs by human sperm, but only under licence for research purposes and not for reproductive purposes.
Ms Giddings said Tasmania’s Human Cloning and other Prohibited Practices Act 2003 (Tasmanian Cloning Act) currently prohibits both reproductive and therapeutic human cloning along with other unacceptable practices associated with reproductive technology such as the creation of hybrid animal-human embryos.
“The Tasmanian Cloning Act mirrors the Commonwealth’s Prohibition of Human Cloning Act 2002, which was independently reviewed in 2005 by the Lockhart Committee,” Ms Giddings said.
“The Committee made 54 recommendations for changes, including permitting, in certain circumstances, the creation of human embryos by processes other than fertilisation of a human egg by a human sperm for use in research (therapeutic cloning).
“A public review of Tasmania’s laws to determine whether they remained valid and appropriate was completed in September last year and the Report was tabled in both Houses of Parliament.
“The Report recommended that in the interests of a nationally consistent regulatory and licensing regime, amendments to the Tasmanian Cloning Act should be drafted to mirror the Commonwealth Cloning Act for debate in the Tasmanian Parliament.
“COAG agreed in April that to maintain national consistency the States and the ACT should amend their laws in line with the Commonwealth amendments, and the Bill to be introduced today delivers on that commitment,” Ms Giddings said.
| Further information: | Tasmanian Government Communications Unit Phone: (03) 6233 6573 |