The editing of the law was governed by the rule that ‘everything that is not forbidden by this law is allowed’. The initiators of the law point out that the law does not prohibit germline gene therapy and therapeutic cloning and that a contrario these applications are allowed.
Belgium has neither ratified nor signed the European Convention on Human Rights and Biomedicine. According to the State Council (Conseil d’Etat), Belgium should make a reservation for Art. 13 and Art. 18 of the Convention. Art. 13 forbids germline gene therapy. Art. 18 of the Convention states that ‘the creation of human embryos for research purposes is prohibited’. As mentioned above, both act are allowed by this law by default.