Das japanische Klontechnikgesetz. Kritische Bemerkungen aus strafrechtlicher Sicht

Abstract

In November 2000, the Japanese Parliament enacted an act on the regulation of human cloning. This article illustrates the important provisions of this act from a criminal law perspective. Not all cloning techniques are mentioned in the act, and criminal punishment is laid down for only a few specific deeds. The author criticizes that the differentiations made by the act between various techniques related to human cloning are not fully coherent. Furthermore, from the perspective of criminal law doctrine, it would be extremely difficult to justify the culpability of acts concerning human cloning. Eventually, he comes to the conclusion that the act itself is very dubious and can probably only be explained by the apparent political intent of the Japanese government to comply swiftly with international proclamations that call for a ban on human cloning.

(The Editors)