What are the laws concerning human cloning?

Fifteen states have laws pertaining to human cloning. The issue was first addressed by California legislature, which banned reproductive cloning, or cloning to initiate a pregnancy, in 1997. Since then Arkansas, Connecticut, Indiana, Iowa, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Rhode Island, New Jersey, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Virginia have enacted measures to prohibit reproductive cloning. Arizona and Missouri have measures that address the use of public funds for cloning, and Maryland prohibits the use of state stem cell research funds for reproductive cloning and possibly therapeutic cloning depending on how one interprets the definition of human cloning in the statute. Louisiana also enacted legislation that prohibited reproductive cloning, but the law expired in July 2003.

Arkansas, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, North Dakota and South Dakota laws extend their prohibitions to therapeutic cloning, or cloning for research purposes. Virginia's law also may ban human cloning for any purpose, but it may be open to varying interpretations because the law does not define the term "human being," which is used in the definition of human cloning. Rhode Island law does not prohibit cloning for research, and California and New Jersey human cloning laws specifically permit cloning for the purpose of research.

Copied from the National Conference of State Legislatures website: http://www.ncsl.org/default.aspx?tabid=14284.