Junior health minister Balaji Sadavisan said the law would deter rogue scientists, with anyone flouting the law facing a S$100,000 (US$59,000 US dollar) fine and up to 10 years in jail.

"This bill will unequivocally make it clear that we prohibit reproductive human cloning," Sadasivan said during a parliamentary debate.

"All these self-promoters (who) want to promote human cloning are not welcome in Singapore for any activity that is related to human cloning."

Embryos can only be kept for 14 days, after which they start forming tissues and organs, and are banned from being inserted into the womb for development.

Legislators said the law, similar to Britain's, balanced the need to stamp out any moves towards human-cloning with the need for stem-cell research into diseases.

"The main reason for permitting therapeutic cloning is the promise it holds for medical cures," said MP Chong Weng Chiew in supporting the bill.

"Therapeutic cloning offers hope to victims of heart diseases, diabetes, Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, spinal cord injury and other debilitating diseases."

MP S. Iswaran said Singapore could also derive economic benefits from embryonic research for medical reasons.

He noted that the worldwide market for drugs to treat Alzheimer's disease was US$1.3 billion in 2003 and is expected to grow to three billion dollars in 2008.

However some groups, including church leaders, have raised ethical and moral issues not only over human cloning but also the use of embryos for research using their stem cells -- master cells which can grow into any tissue in the body.

Therapeutic cloning can involve altering genes in the embryos to tailor their genetic make-up to that of the recipient-patient to reduce the risk of rejection.

For example, a person suffering from diabetes does not have the cell to produce insulin. While a cell can be taken from an embryo, it could be of a different genetic make-up and can be rejected by the patient.

"But if the make-up of the cells can be changed so that it can be altered to be geneticaly similar to that of the recipient, then those stem cells when given to the patient will not be rejected," said Sadasivan, a medical doctor.

With the law, Singapore joins 30 countries around the world that have adopted national legislation or decrees "explicitly or implicitly" prohibiting human cloning.

Of these countries, about half allow therapeutic cloning, Sadasivan said.

"So the legal position in Singapore on stem cell research and cloning is somewhat similar to the United Kingdom and Japan," he said.

He added that no entity is currently carrying out therapeutic research cloning in Singapore and no one has applied to do so.

"As the science of this area evolves, as companies apply to do therapeutic cloning research, we will introduce the regulations based on the best practices of that time to ensure that all work being done is ethical," he said.

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