Faced with the risk of certain scientific research projects leading to the possibility of cloning human beings, the Council of Europe decided in 1998 to draw up a protocol aimed at "prohibiting any intervention having the aim of creating a human being genetically identical to another human being, whether alive or dead", irrespective of the technique used. The text, which took effect on 1 March 2001, thus prohibits any attempt at “reproductive“ cloning, which involves causing a cloned human being to be born.