Alabama House approves ban on human reproductive cloning after extended debate, adds IVF exemption

The Alabama House of Representatives passed House Bill 380, a bill that criminalizes the intentional creation of a fully developed human clone and establishes criminal penalties, after receiving committee and floor amendments and a final recorded vote.

Representative Philip Rigsby, the bill sponsor, argued the measure is needed to ‘‘put guardrails’’ around emerging genetic and reproductive technologies and to protect human dignity. ‘‘For the safety of our citizens, the integrity of medical science, and the preservation of human dignity, I urge us today to consider this legislation,’’ Rigsby said on the House floor.

The bill, as amended on the floor, prohibits reproductive or ‘‘fully developed’’ cloning and carries criminal penalties; the floor debate clarified the language to exclude laboratory research that produces tissue or organs rather than a fully developed human being. A floor amendment added the phrase ‘‘fully developed living organism’’ to the statutory definition of prohibited cloning; the amendment was…