Today, February 22nd, marks the 20th anniversary since Dolly the Sheep was announced to the public. She was the first successfully cloned mammal and lived until the age of 6. Dolly was unique because she was cloned from an adult cell rather than from embryonic cells.1
She was born in Edinburgh, Scotland, at the Roslin Institute on July 5th, 1996, and yes, she was actually “born” in the traditional sense. DNA from a sheep cell was inserted into an egg and implanted into a sheep. Tests confirmed that Dolly’s DNA is wholly her mother’s DNA, not that of the surrogate mom.
With this announcement came a flood of ethical and legal questions, including: Is cloning allowed? Are the laws surrounding cloning constitutional?
Animal Cloning
Cloning animals in Canada is legal. Starting with Dolly, labs have begun to clone other animals. At McGill University in 2007, researchers cloned Canada’s first pig.2 The McGill lab has been contacted by other labs at Canadian universities to clone animals for research.
Though animal cloning is legal, there are restrictions in place on what can be done with the animals. Health Canada created an interim policy in 2003, stating that any food to be sold from cloned animals must first pass a safety assessment.3 Health Canada was concerned that the method of cloning posed safety concerns.
There are also ethical concerns with cloning animals. In the United States, there are companies that will clone your pet!4 You can actually pay a company $50,000 to get a DNA-identical version of your dog.
A 2010 study by Ipsos Reid for Agriculture Canada showed that over half of Canadians found animal cloning unacceptable.5 Only 16% thought cloning animals was tolerable.
Human Cloning
Human cloning has been outlawed in Canada for years. Sections 5(1) and 9 of the Assisted Human Reproduction Act prohibits the creation of a human clone or transplanting a human clone into a human being.6 Unlike some other countries, a person cannot knowingly create a human clone for any purpose or use in Canada, with some exceptions for research purposes.7 Specifically, research on embryos may be permitted if a proper license is obtained, and if the researchers adhere to the proper regulatory oversight.8
In comparison, US federal laws permit human cloning for limited purposes.9
Is Human Cloning Constitutional?
Professor Barbara Billingsley, from right here at the University of Alberta’s Faculty of Law, has considered the question of whether the cloning prohibitions in the AHRA unjustifiably infringe on Canadians’ section 2(b) right of freedom of expression to create non-reproductive human clones.10 To find infringement, the act of human cloning must first be determined to be a form of expression.
She notes that although Canadian courts have not yet ruled on whether medical research is a form of expression, there have been comments from the courts that indicate that it would be likely.11 Assuming it does infringe, Billingsley found that the bans in the AHRA likely infringe Canadians’ constitutional rights, in that they infringe the pursuit of truth in the scientific community, and/or ‘human flourishing’.12
Billingsley did not conclude whether the right would be justifiably infringed. She stated that policy reasons behind the ban were unclear and the lack of case law on the subject prevents an adequate guide for such an analysis.13
In contrast, the US has grappled with cloning within the context of the First Amendment. Specifically, scientists claim that the “right to research” falls within the First Amendment because it “challenges or explores cultural or political norms, which, is an act of rebellion … in the spirit of the First Amendment.”14 Unlike in Canada, there are no federal laws currently outlawing human cloning.15
1“1997: Dolly the Sheep is Cloned”, BBC News, online: <news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/february/22/newsid_4245000/4245877.stm>.
2Michael Bourguignon, “Cloned Pigs a First in Canada”, McGill Reporter (6 December 2007), online: <https://www.mcgill.ca/reporter/40/08/pigs/>.
3www.hc-sc.gc.ca/fn-an/legislation/pol/pol-cloned_animal-clones_animaux-eng.php
4see www.myfriendagain.com.
5Sarah Schmidt, “Canadians Leery of Cloned Animals”, Canada.com (5 October 2010), online: <www.canada.com/health/Most+Canadians+leery+cloned+animals/3628765/story.html>.
6Assisted Human Reproduction Act, SC 2004, c 2.
7Health Canada, “Prohibitions Related to Scientific Research and Clinical Applications”, (Ottawa: 9 January 2014), online: <www.hc-sc.gc.ca/dhp-mps/brgtherap/legislation/reprod/research-recherche-eng.php#fnb2-ref>.
8UNESCO, National Legislation Concerning Human Reproductive and Therapeutic Cloning (Paris: 2004) at 5, online: <unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0013/001342/134277e.pdf>.
9Health Canada, supra note 7.
10Barbara Billingsley, “A Constitutional Analysis of the Proposed Ban on Non-Reproductive Human Cloning: An Unjustified Violation of Freedom of Expression?” (2002) 11:1 Health L Rev 32, online: <www.hli.ualberta.ca/HealthLawJournals/~/media/hli/Publications/HLR/11-1-billingsleyfrm.pdf>.
11Ibid.
12Ibid.
13Ibid.
14Wesley J Smith, “Constitutional Cloning”, The Weekly Standard (8 September 2004), online: <www.weeklystandard.com/constitutional-cloning/article/5908>.
15“Cloning: Frequently Asked Questions”, NPR, online: <www.npr.org/news/specials/cloning/faq_blanknav.html>.
