Human clone fears as Euro scientists CREATE LIFE from ‘nothing’
Cloning horror: Human clone fears as Euro scientists
CREATE LIFE from ‘nothing’
SCIENTISTS have created a living embryo in a laboratory
without using either egg or sperm in ground-breaking but hugely controversial
experiments.
By CARLY READ 08:58, Thu, May 3, 2018 | UPDATED: 14:57,
Thu, May 3, 2018
The experimental research combined two types of stem
cells and created a viable embryo – which the team say would provide an
unlimited stock for medical research.
The created embryos would also be used for medical
treatment testing and help shed light on one of the biggest infertility enigmas
- why embryos fail to implant in the womb.
However critics say it is a huge step towards human
cloning.
The researchers believe the wonder creation could see
mice being cloned in three years time, and humans two decades later.
Lead researcher, Professor Nicholas Rivron of Maastricht
University, said the main use for the embryos would be to test drugs and solve
the infertility riddle.
He said: “As you know, embryos are very precious, and it
is impossible to use to test drugs on them as you don’t have the numbers.
“With blastocysts you can open up the numbers. This will
allow screening medicines in the future.
“I do not believe in using blastocysts for human
reproduction. This is ethically very questionable, this would be clones of
somebody who is already alive. Human cloning is totally forbidden.”
Professor Robin Lovell-Badge of the Francis Crick
Institute added while the experiment was a huge breakthrough for modern
science, it may come as a relief it cannot be replicated in humans yet.
He said: “It may come as a relief to others that such a
method of producing many genetically identical human embryo-like structures
that might be capable of implantation is not feasible - even if it would be
illegal to implant them into women, as is clearly the situation in the UK.”
Cloning continues to fascinate the science world,
particularly after Dolly the Sheep made headlines across the globe in 1996.
The ewe lived for six years after being the first mammal
cloned by professors at the University of Edinburgh by Keith Campbell and Ian
Wilmut.
The animal died five months before her seventh birthday
from a progressive lung disease.
https://www.express.co.uk/news/science/954585/scientists-embryo-egg-sperm-stem-cell-research-cloning
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