The Labour Party has tabled a Private Members Bill to ban human cloning in Ireland.
At a press conference in Dublin, Labour Party spokesperson on Agriculture and Food, Dr Mary Upton, called for the introduction of the Bill to allay concerns from the scientific community and general public at the absence of a framework governing cloning.
"The purpose of the Bill is to provide limits within which any such research or licencing regime should operate," Dr Upton said.
The proposed Bill states that a person who brings into being a human embryo otherwise than by a process of fertilisation will be guilty of an offence. It provides that a person found guilty of such an offence will be liable to imprisonment for a term not exceeding ten years or a fine or both.
At the end of last year the Raelian movement in the United States announced that it had successfully produced a cloned baby. Although the claims are unconfirmed, they created considerable shock in the scientific world.
"Many countries have moved to introduce legislation to ban human cloning, but there is no legislation to prevent scientists embarking on a similar project here," Dr Upton said.
"I believe that we should act immediately to introduce a specific legislative ban on human cloning. Doing nothing will create a dangerous legislative vacuum," Dr Upton added.
