20Offence—importing, exporting or placing a prohibited embryo

#### 20 Offence—importing, exporting or placing a prohibited embryo (1) A person commits an offence if the person intentionally imports an embryo into Australia knowing that, or reckless as to whether, the embryo is a prohibited embryo. Penalty: Imprisonment for 15 years. (2) A person commits an offence if the person intentionally exports an embryo from Australia knowing that, or reckless as to whether, the embryo is a prohibited embryo. Penalty: Imprisonment for 15 years. (3) A person commits an offence if the person intentionally places an embryo in the body of a woman knowing that, or reckless as to whether, the embryo is a prohibited embryo, unless: (a) the embryo is a prohibited embryo under paragraph (a), (c) or (f) of the definition of that expression in subsection (4); and (b) the placement of the embryo by the person is permitted under section 28B of the Research Involving Human Embryos Act 2002 (carrying out activities authorised by mitochondrial donation licences). Penalty: Imprisonment for 15 years. (4) In this section: > prohibited embryo means: (a) a human embryo created by a process other than the fertilisation of a human egg by human sperm; or (b) a human embryo created outside the body of a woman, unless the intention of the person who created the embryo was to attempt to achieve pregnancy in a particular woman; or (c) a human embryo that contains genetic material provided by more than 2 persons; or (d) a human embryo that has been developing outside the body of a woman for a period of more than 14 days, excluding any period when development is suspended; or (e) a human embryo created using precursor cells taken from a human embryo or a human fetus; or (f) a human embryo that contains a human cell (within the meaning of section 15) whose genome has been altered in such a way that the alteration is heritable by human descendants of the human whose cell was altered; or (g) a human embryo that was removed from the body of a woman by a person intending to collect a viable human embryo; or (h) a chimeric embryo or a hybrid embryo. (5) Despite subsection 13.3(3) of the Criminal Code, a defendant does not bear an evidential burden in relation to any matter in subsection (3) of this section.