Like the ethical debates before the discoveries of Nicolaus Copernicus, Charles Darwin or J. Robert Oppenheimer, there are no easy answers. Amid the press of cameramen and din of mobiles, Antinori stepped forward for his moment of glory. Cloning is the last frontier. There is no law to prevent human cloning from taking place in New Zealand, according to Labour list MP Dianne Yates. The researchers believe they will succeed in delivering a cloned baby within two years.
Experts plan to spell out the dangers of human cloning in an open letter to a scientific journal.
So while the prospect of human cloning raises countless ethical quandaries, it was cloning's dismal safety record that led experienced cloners to cringe in January when a team of fertility specialists announced it would embark on the world's first concerted effort to clone a human being. According to the Time article, to clone a human, up to 15 eggs would be taken from up to 40 donors. The nuclei of the eggs would then be removed, and the now DNA-free eggs placed next to cells from the person to be cloned. Doctors would then attempt to fuse the eggs and donor cells with electricity. The scientists are now considering a research project to grow a mouse whose brain is populated almost entirely with human cells, but are worried by the ethics.