Morally abhorrent' Last year, Professor Schatten's team produced Tetra, a female monkey clone created by splitting an embryo in half, as occurs naturally when twins are formed. Just one, Andi, displayed gene modification Both Andi and Tetra remain fit and healthy at the research centre, says Professor Schatten. The Medical Research Council, which funds most of the animal experimentation in Britain, said scientists were encouraged to use appropriate animals with the least sentience possible. It said it thought GM mice would remain the prime model for human disease in the country's labs. Although it is often necessary to use animals to understand human diseases, some of the work on cognitive diseases, such as schizophrenia, can only be carried out in people.
Project aims Some groups went further.
Now we're talking about small numbers of animals and gene markers, but what will happen in the future is that scientists will either add or knock out genes in primates to see what happens to them. The end result is terrible suffering. Professor Schatten counters such comment by saying modified primates would only be used in clearly defined circumstances. He said the aim of the project was not to breed hundreds and hundreds of monkeys for medical research. We wouldn't want to make a monkey that carries a disease unless we knew there was a cure right in front of us.