Cow / human clone hybrid - cow and human mixed together. Patrick Dixon is a Futurist Keynote Speaker and advisor on future of biotech, pharma and health care

Futurist Keynote Speaker: Posts, Slides, Videos - What is Human Cloning? How to Clone. But Ethical?

World's best kept secret in cloning research

The world's first human clone of an adult has now been made, by an American biotechnology company in Massachusetts, Advanced Cell Technology.  They took a cell from Dr Jose Cibelli, a research scientist and combined it with a cows egg from which the genes had already been removed. (News November 1998)

The genes activated and the egg began to divide in the normal way up to the 32 cell stage at which it was destroyed.  If the clone had been allowed to continue beyond implantation it would have developed as Dr Cibelli's identical twin.    Technically 1% of the human clone genes would have belonged to the cow - the mitochondria genes.  Mitochondria are power generators in the cytoplasm of the cell.  They grow and divide inside cells and are passed on from one generation to another.  They are present in sperm and eggs.   Judging by the successful growth of the combined human-cow clone creation it appears that cow mitochondria may well be compatible with human embryonic development.

However the biggest piece of news is not what they did in human cloning - sensational enough - but the fact that they kept cloning secret for three years after doing it, and presumably they were trying to do it at least a couple of years before that.

Let's wind back the clock:  these scientists had already carried out successful human nuclear transfer into an unfertilised egg before Dolly the sheep clone had been made.  In other words, the huge media rush about Dolly came only because the Dolly scientists in Edinburgh came clean sooner.   But even they omitted to tell us anything until Dolly was seven months old, well over a year after the cloning technique was successfully carried out and a good two to three years perhaps after they began their secretive work.

The lesson is this:  today's headlines on human cloning tell us history.  The big question is what's going on now?  What experiments were completed in 1996, 1997 and 1998 that we won't know about until 1999 to 2001 - if then?

Elsewhere on this site I describe my own conversations with a British scientist in the 1980s who was attempting then to clone human embryos - with some success.  His purpose he said was to freeze clones to be used later for spare parts.  Defrost a twin, implant it into a surrogate of a humanised ape and cull it for spares.  Over a decade later he is still lying very low about his work.

There could be one benefit of the human to cows egg transfers.  Some people are very uneasy about creating a human embryo and then dismembering it, however early the stage, to obtain embryonic stem cells from which useful tissues might be grown.  they might feel more comfortable with a hybrid solution, if it were shown that the embryonic cow-human stem cells were viable as tissue producers but not capable of becoming a baby.

However there are many other ethical issues.   For a start it raises the biggest question of all:  how many human genes does a cow or monkey have to gain before we give it human rights?  In these human-cow clones one imagines every court in the world would agree that the child born would be capable of being prosecuted for murder, even though it would technically be 1% cow.

But what about other proportions?   Humonkeys are within our capability and have been for several years.   Scientists have already made geep (combined sheep and goat), and camas (combined camels and lamas) simply by rolling two balls of cells together after fertilisation.     Monkeys and humans have 97% of genes in common so if the right 1.6% were transferred from a human to a monkey we could land up with a monkey more human than animal.

These questions will need facing sooner than you may think.  And for the theologians another question:  how many human genes does an animal have to have to need salvation?   Christians, Muslims and Jews believe that humans are made in the image of God.  Human life is a mystery.  What does that mean in the light of these extraordinary developments?

Join the Debate! What are your own views?

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Kevin

August 31, 2020 - 17:07

I would like to volunteer for human animal crossing cell dna

Bertha Romandia

December 26, 2017 - 01:06

What gives you the right to play God? The differentes is that humans are created with the capability of making choices. To love, kill hate and the list goes on and on. You're taking away that choice when you experment with human life in the process of trying to clone them. As for animals they don't have choices, because they weren't given a choice, because the human train's and controls them and it also depends on what type of animal. Also the fact that the government officials want to control the human race and that's another reason why the micro ship was created to control the human race of their choices and sinful nature and to perfect then to no longer practice the life style of a sinful nature. Judgement day is coming for all mankind and only God the one and only true creater of all living things. Also the one that has the power to give ans take life after we've lived up to our full potential.

Reply to Bertha Romandia

Kevin

August 31, 2020 - 17:05

I like to volunteer for human cross DNA with animals

shubham waskale

May 04, 2016 - 07:09

Awesome article's sit...
I really like it
Please send me some more articles about research. In biotechnology

Taha

April 15, 2016 - 17:24

I liked your article just that you had said "Christians, Muslims and Jews believe that humans are made in the image of God." Muslim dont beleive that humans are created in the image of God. May you please correct that sentence in the article.

Thank you
Taha Amellal

Taha

April 15, 2016 - 17:24

I liked your article just that you had said "Christians, Muslims and Jews believe that humans are made in the image of God." Muslim dont beleive that humans are created in the image of God. May you please correct that sentence in the article.

Thank you
Taha Amellal

dont like

July 11, 2010 - 03:48

stop this madns`

you should stop this know it will be to late if one find out how to tell the other ones how to kill the human race so stop this befor if happens to the first part of the human race the there will be the END OF THE WORLD FOR ALL

Reply to dont like

Char crouse

December 15, 2019 - 01:23

Why should you play god! So is it you that cloned a goat and a dog together. See that right there is exactly why this should not be done AT ALL. I never seen the pictures but a friend did and said it was disgusting what you did! There’s always one moron that what’s to take it to the nth degree! Stop it! God is the only one that should be cloning!

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