As with cloning, the Council of Europe's Convention on Human Rights and Dignity with Regard to Biomedicine stands as the most encouraging international initiative to date. Article 13 of the Convention states: "An intervention seeking to modify the human genome may only be undertaken for preventive, diagnostic or therapeutic purposes and only if its aim is not to introduce any modification in the genome of any descendants."

The Convention has been signed by 31 (75%) of the 41 member states of the Council of Europe and has been ratified directly by 17 of them (Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark , Estonia, Georgia, Greece, Hungary, Lithuania, Moldova, Portugal, Romania, San Marino, Slovakia , Slovenia and Spain).

Other countries that have passed laws or regulations that explicitly or implicitly proscribe inheritable genetic modification include: Australia, Austria, Costa Rica, Denmark, France, Germany, Hungary, India, Israel, Japan, Norway, Peru, Spain, Sweden, Trinidad and Tobago, and the United Kingdom. See:
http://www.glphr.org/genetic/genetic.htm.