Biotechnology and Bioengineering News -- ScienceDaily

Showing posts with label Primates. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Primates. Show all posts

Tuesday, November 29, 2016

Chinese confident about the future of cloning

I have found a TrueViralNews report dated 20th November, 2016 in my alerts, about the Chinese having the ability to clone mammals, including Primates and humans. The company making the claim is the Boyalife Group which aims to be cloning cows from a massive new complex soon, and in cooperation with other groups, hopes to be cloning Primates and maybe even humans if public opinion is favourable.

Primate embryos were successfully produced by somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT) in 2007. In addition, Tetra is the name of a monkey, born in 1999, by a cloning technique known as embryo splitting (not SCNT). Clonaid.com is offering a human cloning service using SCNT already.

Wednesday, October 19, 2016

The stars should lead the way

I have been thinking, as of late, about how to explain why we, as people, have yet to produce the first proper human clone. I have gone to some length on this blog, to enlighten the lay reader, and to support the research of the teams of doctors who are now in a position to produce the first proper human clone - as opposed to the experimental clone produced by Doctor Jose Cibelli. Dolly's daughters are remarkably well - proving that SCNT works, and the offspring of clones are just about as well as most normally-conceived humans.

I understand from Clonaid that $200,000 is a ballpark figure for cloning a human being. This may seem a lot to many; but what have we been doing for the last 50 years? We have been cheering pop stars and football players until we are hoarse, and they are rich! Don't those same stars whose statuses were created by people who had, rightly, become sick of killing and maiming in two world wars, and who wanted, at all costs, to avoid blowing the planet apart in World War III; owe it to their loyal fans to reproduce themselves exactly, so future generations can enjoy the exact same musical and ball skills as we did?

If they have had normal children already, I wish them all well, but what about those that have yet to produce children, or have had children that don't look a bit like their parents? Should it not be the duty of those stars to lead the way for the rest of us lesser mortals, and drive the price of cloning down to make it more affordable? After all, how much pension does your granny have left?

On reflection, it may be that we need to do further research with Primates, and leave Dolly and her family to enjoy themselves, before mankind is satisfied that it is wise to take the next giant leap in its progress.