The Science and Technology Agency has compiled an outline of planned legislation that would ban human cloning and impose prison terms on violators, government sources said Monday.
It will be the first legislation banning certain scientific research with specific penalties. Details will be subject to further discussions within the government.
The agency submitted the outline Monday to a Liberal Democratic Party panel dealing with science and technology issues. They plan to submit a relevant bill to the current 150-day regular Diet session.
According to the outline, the proposed law will ban the act of putting a cloned embryo -- a cloning technique in which a human body cell is transplanted into an unfertilized egg from which the nucleus has been removed -- back into the womb of humans or animals.
Transplanting of hybrid embryos -- a human egg cell fertilized with animal sperm -- will also be banned, as will the transplanting into the womb of chimera embryos -- made by combining human and animal embryo cells -- the outline says.
The government will also set guidelines to be used when deciding if other types of clone-related research are to be permitted.
If a certain research project does not meet the guidelines, government authorities will order the people responsible to amend the project. The researchers will face administrative penalties if they refuse to obey the orders.
Concern over the future possibility of human cloning was triggered worldwide when the sheep, Dolly, was born. Made public in 1997, it was the first mammal cloned from an adult cell.
Human cloning is banned in Britain, France and Germany. The United States does not impose regulations on private-sector human cloning research, although it bans the use of government funds on such research projects.