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The Arrival of Human Cloning: It’s here. Don’t get used to it.

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Photo Credit: weekly standardHuman cloning is finally here, and it is going to spark a political conflagration…

[A]n international group of scientists announced in the June 6 Cell—a prominent, peer-reviewed scientific journal—that they created scores of cloned human embryos, developing four of them in a dish for about 10 days to the blastocyst stage (about 150-200 cells). This is the stage at which embryos created in vitro are usually implanted if they are to be gestated to birth. However, that was not the purpose of the recent experiments. Instead, the cloned embryos were destroyed and embryonic stem cell lines created—a process sometimes called “therapeutic cloning.” While these scientists have no interest in reproductive cloning, if a cloned baby is ever born, their experiments will have been a big step toward making it possible.

The successful cloning of human beings—whether for research or birth—is momentous: Even if the technique is used only in pursuit of biological knowledge and medical treatments, those will come at the very high ethical price of manufacturing human life for the purpose of harvesting it like a corn crop—that is, for the purpose of destroying it.

Cloning, moreover, is essential to foreseeable endeavors such as the genetic engineering of embryos, the creation of human/animal chimeras, the gestation of cloned fetuses in artificial wombs as a means of obtaining patient-compatible organs, and eventually the birth of cloned babies…

President George W. Bush triggered intense debate by placing minor restrictions on the funding of embryonic stem cell research by the National Institutes of Health. Despite the false claim that Bush had banned embryonic stem cell research, he actually funded it to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars.

Read more from this story HERE.

Oregon Scientists Clone and Kill Human Embryos for Dubious Research

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Photo Credit: LifeNewsBy David Prentice. Scientists in Oregon announced today that they had created cloned human embryos, and then destroyed the embryos to extract embryonic stem cells.

The cloning technique is essentially the same one used to create Dolly the cloned sheep, with some modifications to make cloning work using human eggs and human cells. This is the first claim of growing human embryonic stem cells from cloned human embryos since the fraudulent claims in 2004 and 2005 of Korean scientist Hwang Woo-Suk. The report, published online in the journal Cell, also highlights the fact that women are a target for raw materials for the cloning technique, since “premium quality” eggs are required to make their human cloning technique work.

It’s a grave concern that some scientists are still pursuing human cloning, a technology that will open the door to human engineering and a brave – but highly dangerous – new world. Human cloning by this technique requires the specific creation of a new individual, albeit cloned, at the embryo stage, using human eggs and human tissue cells.

Modern science has passed this by, especially in regards to stem cells. Creating and destroying cloned human embryos to extract their embryonic stem cells is unethical, and the entire faulty concept of using the cloning technique has been superseded by uncontroversial techniques. Read more from this story HERE.

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Study: Scientists Clone Stem Cells From Human Skin Cells

By Michael Allen. Human stem cells were cloned from adult human skin cells by scientists at Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU), according to a study published in the scientific journal Cell today.

According to a press release, OHSU scientists removed the DNA from donated egg cells and replaced it with DNA from an adult’s skin cells.

The researchers hoped that the stem cells would grow in the cloned embryo and would be a match for the skin cell donor. This process could help doctors perform reconstructive surgery on the skin donor.

Lead researcher Dr. Shoukhrat Mitalipo said that the stem cells (that grew in the embryo) were able to change “into several different cell types, including nerve cells, liver cells and heart cells.”

Dr. Mitalipov told NPR that to get the stem cells growing, researchers use some electricity and a small amount of caffeine. Read more from this story HERE.

Wanted: ‘Adventurous Woman’ to Give Birth to Neanderthal Man – Harvard Professor Seeks Mother for Cloned Cave Baby

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They’re usually thought of as a brutish, primitive species. So what woman would want to give birth to a Neanderthal baby?

Yet this incredible scenario is the plan of one of the world’s leading geneticists, who is seeking a volunteer to help bring man’s long-extinct close relative back to life. Professor George Church of Harvard Medical School believes he can reconstruct Neanderthal DNA and resurrect the species which became extinct 33,000 years ago.

His scheme is reminiscent of Jurassic Park but, while in the film dinosaurs were created in a laboratory, Professor Church’s ambitious plan requires a human volunteer. He said his analysis of Neanderthal genetic code using samples from bones is complete enough to reconstruct their DNA.

He said: ‘Now I need an adventurous female human.’

‘It depends on a hell of a lot of things, but I think it can be done.’

Professor Church’s plan would begin by artificially creating Neanderthal DNA based on genetic code found in fossil remains. He would put this DNA into stem cells. These would be injected into cells from a human embryo in the early stages of life.

Read more from this story HERE.