Fwd: First cloned human embryo is ready to implant in surrogate mother

[Guest guest]

Health and Healing ,

Misty

Wed, 17 Sep 2003 01:33:58 +1200

First cloned human embryo is ready to implant in

surrogate mother

 

(Why don't they make sure she is at least 60 as well, with a womb transplant

too, may as well go the whole hog.)

 

First cloned human embryo is ready to implant in surrogate mother, scientist

claims

By Charles Arthur Technology Editor

16 September 2003

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/science_medical/story.jsp?story=443860

 

An American scientist claims to have made the world's first cloned human

embryo and says he will implant it in a surrogate mother later this year.

 

Dr Panyiotis Zavos, a fertility specialist at the University of Kentucky,

also said he had created hybrid embryos by putting human DNA into " emptied "

cows' eggs. He insisted that this was not in poor taste but was done as a

scientific model for future human cloning efforts.

 

But the claim met scepticism from other scientists, who pointed out that the

work had not been published in scientific journals where others could verify

the procedures and data.

 

He joins a burgeoning group who have claimed to have made cloned embryos or

even humans. Dr Severino Antinori and the Raelian cult made separate claims

last year but neither has been verified.

 

Dr Zavos said at a meeting in London yesterday that he created the cloned

embryo earlier this year with cells taken from a woman. " We attempted to

transfer [implant] it in July but our surrogate [mother] developed

complications and we had to postpone, " he said. " But we will try again this

year. " The embryo was at an early stage, where it had only grown to about

eight cells, and had been kept frozen - as is commonly done with embryos for

test- tube babies - until the surrogate was ready to receive it.

 

The experiment is being done in a secret location outside the US and Europe,

which outlaw human cloning for reproduction. Some sources speculated that Dr

Zavos, a Cypriot by birth, may be doing the work in the Middle East or even

China. But Dr Jackie O'Connell of Cambridge University expressed doubts over

the research and its chances of success if it were true. " The major problem

with cloning is that many embryos survive to the blastocyst stage, of 128

cells, but then there's a massive rate of attrition. Most implanted cloned

embryos never reach maturity. "

 

Dr Zavos said that the purpose of his cows' egg experiment was to understand

the mechanisms of cell developments and cloning methods. " We aren't creating

humans by putting DNA into bovine eggs, " he said. " We aren't interested in

creating monsters. "

 

Dr Zavos said that he chose not to submit his work to the best-known

scientific journals, Science and Nature, because he preferred to be

published in journals read by reproductive scientists. His latest work on

the bovine-human hybrid is to be published in an online peer-reviewed

journal called Reproductive Biology Medicine.

17 September 2003 01:31

 

 

 

 

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