Human cloning now a reality

US scientists involved with a small company set up by
an unnamed investor report they are the first to clone human embryos
and prove it.

But some researchers are asking how much of a scientific development this really is.

Dr Andrew French of Stemagen Corporation of La Jolla in California
and colleagues have published their findings online ahead of print
publication in the journal Stem Cells.

The researchers used somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT) to clone
five early-stage embryos, called blastocysts, from donated human eggs
and skin cells from two men.

"This study demonstrates, for the first time, that SCNT can produce
human blastocyst stage embryos using nuclei from a differentiated adult
somatic cell," the researchers say.

The researchers' long term aim is to use SCNT to produce
patient-specific stem cells for possible treatments, but this time
around they did not actually produce stem cells from the cloned embryos.

Instead, they destroyed the embryos in the process of checking their DNA in order to prove they were clones. [my emphasis]

A couple of important points to note here:

1.Researchers are saying they "cloned human embryos" even though these embryos were not implanted and were never going to be. Take a hint Missouri, SCNT is cloning, just like we always said.

2. Researchers in this article said "cloning technique is only efficient if the egg is used within two hours of being taken from the woman." Once again, this is not about the "frozen leftovers." Fresh eggs and embryos has always been the name of the game.

I found this great cloning timeline today and the following dates should make anyone, including pro-cloners, pause to think about how far we have come and how far this is going to go:

JULY 5, 1996: Dolly, a sheep who is the first organism ever cloned from adult cells, is born.

MARCH 4, 1997: President Clinton proposes a five year moratorium on federal and privately funded human cloning research.

JULY
1997: The scientists who created Dolly create Polly, a Poll Dorset lamb
cloned from skin cells grown in a lab and genetically altered to
contain a human gene.

SEPTEMBER 1997: Thousands of biologists and
physicians sign a voluntary five-year moratorium on human cloning in
the United States.

JANUARY 1998: Nineteen European nations sign a ban on human cloning.

Less than ten years ago, the world was pretty much in agreement that human cloning was bad. Now we are trying to clone human DNA into cow eggs, with the approval of the government.

All I can think, is "Soylent Green is people! People!"