Victorian Consolidated Legislation

Infertility Treatment Act 1995 - SECT 38J

Offence-heritable alterations to genome

38J. Offence-heritable alterations to genome



(1) A person commits an offence if-

   (a)  the person alters the genome of a human cell in such a way that the
        alteration is heritable by descendants of the human whose cell was
        altered; and

   (b)  in altering the genome, the person intended the alteration to be
        heritable by descendants of the human whose cell was altered.

(2) In this section-

human cell includes a human embryonal cell, a human foetal cell, human sperm
and a human egg.

(3) An offence against subsection (1) is an indictable offence punishable by
imprisonment for a term not exceeding 15 years.