[Human cloning: judicial and legislative framework]

The application, either theoretical or fantastical, of the somatic cloning which resulted in the birth of Dolly the sheep to human reproduction has led to international uproar. A paragraph specifically banning reproductive cloning (defined as "any intervention seeking to produce genetically identical human individuals in the sense of individuals sharing the same nuclear gene set") was added to the Council of Europe Convention on Human Rights and Biomedicine in January 1998. In several responses both at national and international level, reproductive cloning is banned either directly or indirectly. The challenge for the future is the consideration of integrating therapeutic cloning in legislations both nationally and in international declarations.