Cow
to give birth to a bison
Hijacking a womb by one species for another
Scientists at Massachusetts Advances Cell Technology
(ACT) have succeeded in cloning a gaur, an ox-line animal at threat
of extinction in Southern Asia. They used the "Dolly
the sheep" animal cloning technique to create 81 cloned embryos
after 692 attempts using gaur skin cells and cow's eggs.
These cloned embryos were then implanted into cows, with 8 pregnancies,
five miscarriages and three expected live births. (Source Guardian
7 October 2000)
The work is similar to that carried out by Jose
Cibelli in the same institute four years earlier, where he used
his own skin cells and a cow's egg from which the nucleus had
been removed. The result was a developing ball of cells
which was genetically his own identikit clone. He destroyed
it and kept quiet for several years. (see feature
and discussion)
The next step by ACT will be to clone the first
extinct animal, the bucardo. Scientists discovered the last
animal dead, but in time to freeze and preserve tissue samples
for animal cloning.
What about human cloning? Here are two important
human cloning tools.
First we have seen now in humans and in animals
that cells from an adult of one species can be combined with unfertilised
eggs from another species to create viable clones. The latest
cow experiments confirm the strange truth that if Jose Cibelli's
human-cow twin had been implanted it could well have developed
into what looked like a human being. It would have been
99% his twin brother genetically, and 1% cow - because the cow's
egg contains mitochondria or cell power generators, and these
are self-reproducing with each cell division.
Second, a human cloning process either with a human
egg or a cow's egg or a monkey egg or whatever, can be concluded
perhaps by implanting that human cloned embryo into the womb of
another species altogether - such as a baboon or a chimpanzee.
Not yet perhaps because of complex rejection / immune
issues but a real possibility in the future.
Strange thoughts perhaps but over ten years ago
I met a British scientist who confessed to me that he was looking
to clone human embryos (for spare parts) and cultivate them by
implanting in the wombs of monkeys.
But this is only the first hour of the first day
of the genetic revolution - what about tomorrow. I am against
human cloning for many reasons - see "reasons
not to clone" and also concerned about attempts to merge
animal and human genes. Here is a profound question:
how many human genes does an animal need to have to gain human
rights?
Dr Patrick
Dixon is author of Futurewise
and is heavily involved in media
debates on genetics. Search
for more on this site with 24 million requests in year.
Should scientists be told
when to stop? Web TV.
Full
text of "The Genetic Revolution" by Dr Patrick Dixon
Loads more
articles and Web TV videos on cloning HERE
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