In 1958, in a small lab at Oxford University, a biological revolution was born.
A young scientist called John Gurdon cloned an animal from a single cell for the first
time in history. Gurdon had successfully transplanted the nuclei from a tadpole into an egg cell,
to create an exact copy of a frog.
Dozens of animal species have been cloned since Gurdon’s breakthrough, from mice and
rabbits, to dogs, monkeys, and most famously, sheep, when Dolly became the first animal
to be cloned from an adult cell, in 1996.
But for some, that’s not enough. Ever since Gurdon’s first successful cloning back in
1958, scientists have marvelled at the possibility of cloning humans.
The enormity of this feat cannot be underestimated. To clone people, biologists face the challenge
of harvesting precious human eggs, and sustaining a healthy egg cell nucleus with the correct
proteins so it can survive and grow.
In 2009 controversial doctor, Panayiotis Zavos, claimed to have implanted 11 cloned embryos
into the wombs of 4 women. The pregnancies never took, and without enough satisfactory
evidence, Zavos’ work was dismissed as a publicity stunt.
That same year, embryologist Severino Antinori went one step further when he claimed to have
cloned 3 children. Antinori, too, was shunned for unethical practices and making false claims.
But in 2013, a team of biologists led by Dr. Mitalipov in Oregon, USA, produced embryonic
clones of a human being. After decades of failed attempts, science had finally committed
the ultimate taboo.
Using a technique called ‘somatic cell nuclear transfer’, biologists took the nuclei from
human skin cells, and transplanted them into eggs that had been stripped of their genetic
material.
The embryos weren’t allowed to fully develop, but Mitalipov’s experiment proved something
monumental: human cloning is, indeed, biologically possible.
But some believe it’s already happened. In 1995, scientists James Robl and Jose Cibelli
transplanted some of Cibelli’s cells into a cow’s ovum to harvest stem cells.
When the fertilised egg began to divide, Dr Robl and Cibelli allowed the egg to reach
the 32-cell stage before destroying it. Which means that Cibellis cloned embryo was close
to becoming a foetus. Left to grow, Cibelli would have created his own lab-grown twin.
Unbelievably, Robl and Cibelli’s story only made it into a handful of newspapers.
The reason for this might be that because human cloning is such a contentious subject,
the scientific community don’t want to reveal that it’s already happened
Could it be that research on human cloning has been silenced?
But playing God is not without its consequences.
Medically speaking, ‘therapeutic cloning’ can provide new cells for organs. But religious
and secular groups alike have criticized the procedure for its abuse of animal life, and
the frightening implications that it could have on society.
Parents in mourning could be given the chance to clone their dead child, to make them ‘live’
again. Infertile or same-sex couples wanting genetic offspring, might clone themselves
as a form of fertility treatment.
And if reproductive lines branch past first and second clone generations, then mistaken
identity could become a serious issue.
For anti-cloning activists, the good news is that current law prevents biologists from
growing embryos after 9 days, so the human gene pool is safe, for now.
But what is fascinating about our fear of human cloning, is how much it parallels the
hysteria that once surrounded in-vitro fertilization. When the first ‘test tube babies’ were
born in the 1970s, people feared the ‘lab-grown child’. Today, 350,000 babies are born using
assisted reproductive technology each year.
As scientific methods improve, and the concept of cloning is normalized, then perhaps one
day, human clones will be walking among us.