Drudge Report Headline: ‘I CAN CLONE A HUMAN BEING’

The topic of embryonic cloning made its way to Drudge Report’s top headline on Tuesday, March 21 in a late-night update made to the site around 11 p.m.

The article it linked to claims controversial fertility doctor Panayiotis Zavos cloned 14 human embryos and transferred 11 of them into four women.

Here is the Q & A taken from that very interesting article:

Q. What does he claim to have done?

A. Panayiotis Zavos says he has created 14 human embryos and transferred 11 of them into the wombs of four women. Some of these embryos only developed to the four-cell stage before being transferred, but some developed to the 32-cell stage, called a morula. He also claims to have created human-bovine hybrid clones by transferring the cells of dead people into the empty eggs of cows. However, these hybrid embryos were used for research purposes and were not transferred to the womb.

Q. How does this compare to scientists' previous achievements?

A. Other scientists have created human-cloned embryos but not for the purposes of transferring them to wombs in order for women to give birth to babies. Those researchers created cloned human embryos in the test tube to extract stem cells for research. Dr Zavos has gone further (and broken a taboo) by creating embryos specifically for human reproduction, and he has attempted to create a viable pregnancy by transferring the cloned embryos into women.

Q. Hasn't he made similar claims before?

A. In 2004, Dr Zavos claimed to have transferred a cloned human embryo into a woman's womb but did not produce hard evidence. He has now produced more cloned human embryos, some at an advanced stage, and transferred them into the wombs of three more women. An independent documentary maker vouches for him.

Q. Why is this such a controversial thing to do?

A. Studies on animal cloning have shown time and time again that it is unsafe. The cloned animals suffer a higher-than-normal risk of severe developmental problems and the pregnancies often end in miscarriage. Mainstream scientists believe cloning is too dangerous to be used on humans.

Q. How likely is it that he will succeed?

A. He is determined to succeed and has a long line of people eager to sign up to his cloning programme, at a cost of between $45,000 and $75,000. Cloning attempts in other species, including primates, suggest there is no insuperable barrier to cloning humans.

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We must wait and see if this story is indeed true, but we must not forget the false story of the Korean stem cell researcher who claimed to successfully create the world’s first cloned human embryos in 2005. That story can be found here. 

If this is true, it would be a remarkable breakthrough for the stem cell research industry since cloning a human embryo could provide a new (and even more debated) source for stem cell researchers (If the NIH drafted new guidelines to make it legal) to conduct embryonic stem cell research.

On a side note, the photo used in the Drudge Report headline was originally made available by Advanced Cell Technology in 2006. It shows a single cell being removed from a human embryo to be used in generating embryonic stem cells for scientific research.