Scientists Announce Human Cloning Plans

Italian Dr. Severino Antinori and Kentucky fertility specialist Panos Zavos plan to begin the cloning process as soon as November, but faced very tough questions last week at the National Academy of Sciences Panel, which is gathering information related to both the scientific and ethical issues surrounding human cloning for a report due by the end of September. The report will focus on the question of cloning in the United States and whether the world’s lone superpower should impose a moratorium on the practice of cloning.

The process of cloning allows scientists to take any living organism and create what is essentially an exact genetic duplicate. The success rates for animal cloning, however, which currently are hovering around 5%, is a major issue that Antinori, Zavos and their team face. "I think this is not good science," said Rudolf Jaenisch, a biologist who has worked extensively with animal cloning at M.I.T.

In response to critics, Zavos noted, "We’re not perfect, but we’re trying to get there as perfectly as we can." Brigitte Boisselier, an outspoken biochemist who also plans to clone humans at some point in the future, noted that people have the right to reproduce "asexually" through cloning.