The Detroit News. The team is led by Dr. Severino Antinori of Italy, who has already pushed the boundaries of fertility treatment by helping women become pregnant in their late 50s and early 60s. He and Dr. Panayiotis M. Zavos, an American reproductive physiologist who has just left the University of Kentucky, announced their project Jan. 25, apparently becoming the first specialists in reproduction to publicly set the goal of cloning a human being. Three doctors are planning to create cloned children for infertile couples. At Friday's forum in Rome, organized to publicize and advance the project, Ben-Abraham introduced himself as the third member of the team.
Cloning is a process for creating a genetic twin of an individual.
Scientists start with an egg cell, remove the egg's DNA, then insert DNA or even a whole cell from the adult being duplicated into the egg. In the four years since the arrival of Dolly, the famous sheep and the first cloned mammal, scientists have cloned cows, pigs, mice and other animals. Other scientists argue that the results of animal cloning so far underscore the need for more research on animals before cloning is tried on humans. Organizers of the forum had first billed it as an ethical discussion that might help guide their work and would include participation by an unnamed Roman Catholic cardinal. This doesn't mean it was the best choice for humanity.