Click here for
Explanatory Memorandum
————————
AN BILLE UM ATÁIRGEADH DAONNA, 2001
HUMAN REPRODUCTION BILL, 2001
————————
Mar a tionscnaı́odh
As initiated
————————
ARRANGEMENT OF SECTIONS
Section
1. Prohibition of certain acts in connection with human
reproduction.
2. Short title.
————————
[No. 65 of 2001]
2
————————
AN BILLE UM ATÁIRGEADH DAONNA, 2001
HUMAN REPRODUCTION BILL, 2001
————————
BILL
entitled
5
AN ACT TO PROHIBIT THE BRINGING INTO BEING OF A
HUMAN EMBRYO OTHERWISE THAN BY A PROCESS
OF FERTILISATION, INTENDED TO LEAD TO
CHILDBIRTH.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE OIREACHTAS AS FOLLOWS:
10
1.—(1) A person who brings into being a human embryo otherwise than by a process of fertilisation shall be guilty of an offence.
(2) A person who brings into being a human embryo otherwise
than—
Prohibition of
certain acts in
connection with
human
reproduction.
(a) by sexual intercourse, or
15
(b) in the course and for the purpose of a medical treatment
that is intended to lead to a child being delivered alive
from the womb of a woman,
shall be guilty of an offence.
(3) A person guilty of an offence under this section shall be liable
20 on conviction on indictment to imprisonment for a term not
exceeding 10 years or a fine or both.
(4) In this section—
(a) an embryo comes into being on the coming into being of a
two cell zygote, and
25
(b) ‘‘fertilisation’’—
(i) means the process of combining a male and female
gamete to form a zygote, and
30
(ii) does not include the bringing into being of a zygote
by a process where an unfertilised female gamete is
modified by cell nuclear replacement or transplantation.
2.—This Act may be cited as the Human Reproduction Act, 2001.
3
Short title.
Click here for Bill
————————
AN BILLE UM ATÁIRGEADH DAONNA, 2001
HUMAN REPRODUCTION BILL, 2001
————————
EXPLANATORY MEMORANDUM
————————
Purpose of Bill
The Bill is described in its long title as ‘‘an Act to prohibit the
bringing into being of a human embryo other than by a process of
fertilisation, intended to lead to childbirth’’. The Bill has no general
implications for assisted human reproduction (by means, for
example, of in vitro fertilisation). Nor does it attempt to deal with
the family law consequences of fertilisation and childbirth achieved
by means of sperm donation or ‘‘surrogate’’ motherhood. These
aspects — and also the question as to whether there should be a
statutory, licenced-based regime governing genetic research, human
embryology, and so on — will fall to be dealt with in later legislation.
The purpose of this Bill is to provide, by the creation of two specific criminal offences, limits within which any such research or licencing regime should operate.
Provisions of Bill
Section 1(1) provides that a person who brings into being a human
embryo otherwise than by a process of fertilisation shall be guilty of
an offence. This is the provision of the Bill that prohibits ‘‘cloning’’,
a process whereby an embryo is created, not by fertilisation of an
egg by a sperm, but by removing the nucleus from the egg cell and
replacing it with a nucleus of a cell taken from the adult. A embryo
is thereby created whose cell nuclei do not have the normal set of 23
pairs of chromosomes, one of each pair taken from either parent.
Instead, the embryo is genetically identical to one ‘‘parent’’ only.
Such cloned embryos could conceivably be created either for
research purposes, connected with possible future forms of therapeutic treatment, or as a substitute for reproduction by fertilisation,
assisted or otherwise.
It is proposed that the cloning of humans should be prohibited
outright, without exception.
Subsection (2) provides that a person who brings into being a
human embryo otherwise than by sexual intercourse, or in the course
and for the purpose of a medical treatment that is intended to lead
to a child being delivered alive from the womb of a woman, shall be
guilty of an offence. In other words, it shall not be lawful to create
embryos for purely research purposes, whose future birth is not
envisaged.
The subsection does not require that every one of the embryos
created in a process of assisted fertilisation must survive, or be
intended to survive, to viability. But embryos can only be brought
into being in a process where childbirth is the ultimate aim of the
treatment.
1
By subsection (3), a person guilty of an offence under this section
is liable on conviction on indictment to imprisonment for a term not
exceeding 10 years, or to a fine, or to both.
Subsection (4) defines certain terms used in the Bill. It is made
clear that an embryo comes into being on the coming into being of
a two cell zygote. It is also stated that ‘‘fertilisation’’ means the process of combining a male and female gamete to form a zygote, and
that the term does not include the bringing into being of a zygote by
a process where an unfertilised female gamete is modified by cell
nuclear replacement or transplantation — in other words, by cloning.
Section 2 provides for the short title of the Bill.
An Teachta Máire Upton,
Nollaig, 2001.
Wt. 511. 925. 12/01. Cahill. (X43017). Gr. 30-15.
2