Aggregated News

Humanity is facing a policy deficit at both national and international levels concerning social oversight and control of the new technologies of human genetic modification.

In the ten years since the birth of Dolly the sheep alerted the world to the prospect of human cloning and a new, high-tech eugenics, few countries have adopted the policies needed to bring human genetic technology under responsible societal governance.

A survey of national policies shows that as of November 2007:

71% of countries have still not taken action to ban reproductive human cloning;

79% of countries have still not taken action to ban the creation of "designer babies."

Table 1 (below) shows policies by region and world. Tables 2 through 7 (following) show policies for individual countries. An expanded survey (in preparation) analyzes the state of policies adopted or under consideration by international bodies.

A note on the survey

The information shown in this preliminary survey represents our best knowledge as of November 2007. Lead researcher was Rosario Isasi, J.D., CGS Program Associate for International Policy. Additional research was conducted by Jesse Reynolds...