Appendix: State Laws on Human Cloning

There are no federal laws regulating human cloning in the United States, with the exception of laws and policies restricting the federal government from funding human cloning research. However, many states have passed laws on human cloning. Of the states with cloning laws,

● 7 states (Arizona, Arkansas, Michigan, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, and Virginia) clearly prohibit both cloning-to-produce-children and cloning-for-biomedical-research;

● 10 states (California, Connecticut, Illinois, Iowa, Maryland, Massachusetts, Missouri, Montana, New Jersey, and Rhode Island) prohibit cloning-to-produce-children while permitting cloning-for-biomedical-research, therefore legally requiring any cloned human embryos to be frozen in perpetuity or destroyed (so-called “clone-and-kill” laws); and

● 1 state (Minnesota) has a statute that would seem to prohibit cloning-for-biomedical-research while not addressing the issue of cloning-to-produce-children.

Other states have laws that indirectly address human cloning, either by providing or prohibiting government funding for cloning research, or by explicitly protecting doctors who object to human cloning on grounds of conscience.

Alabama. There are currently no laws in Alabama that prohibit human cloning, whether for biomedical research or to produce children.