Op-Ed: One day, cloning may be accepted by society

April 14, 2008

Anyone interested in the fierce debate over the use of animal-human hybrid embryos in scientific research should take a look at a government report published in 2000 by the Chief Medical Officer’s expert group on stem cells. It states that the CMO, Sir Liam Donaldson, and his experts “concluded that the use of eggs from a non-human species to carry a human cell nucleus was not a realistic or desirable solution to the possible lack of human eggs for research or subsequent treatment”.

I predict that the same sort of reaction will greet our report today about the possible use of a new cloning technique to treat infertile couples. Many scientists will dismiss the suggestion from Robert Lanza of Advanced Cell Technology that the technique could soon be used as an IVF technique, but one wonders for how long they will object? (Independent)