Mexican legislation does not regulate explicitly cloning for reproductive and/or therapeutic purposes. The General Health Law and its Regulation on Scientific Research have been interpreted as implicitly prohibiting human reproductive cloning. The article on which this interpretation is based stipulates that research on embryos can only be conducted for the benefit of the embryo and then only when its “security/integrity is guaranteed” (art. 56). For the purpose of this law, an embryo is “the product of conception from fertilization to the end of the 12th week of gestation” (art. 314). This definition is consistent with the Regulation of the General Health Law on Scientific Research, which contains the same definition for an embryo in its article 40.

Several bills have been introduced in both parliamentary chambers and are currently under debate. While the debate remains polarized, most legislative proposals call for a ban on both human reproductive and therapeutic cloning.

Further reference:

• General Health Law of 7 February 1984 (amended June 2006),
  http://info4.juridicas.unam.mx/ijure/tcfed/159.htm?s= (in Spanish)
  
  
• Regulation of the General Health Law on Scientific Research, (January 1987), http://www.respyn.uanl.mx/iv/3/contexto/reglamento_investigacion.htm(in Spanish)
  
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