A Giant Step in Cloning 239
mernil writes "The Independent reports: "A technical breakthrough has enabled scientists to create for the first time dozens of cloned embryos from adult monkeys, raising the prospect of the same procedure being used to make cloned human embryos."
Slashdotted (Score:5, Informative)
Re:hmmmm (Score:3, Informative)
I helped build that! (Score:4, Informative)
The basic principle is that the highly-ordered molecules on which the chromosomes are mounted are birefringent (they change the polarization-state of light), so if you know what the original polarization state was and if you can measure the state afterwards, then you can detect those molecules, even though they are transparent. As the BBC article says, this means you don't need to use toxic dyes to find them (which is obviously a bad idea, if you want the egg to actually survive the process).
Re:one problem (Score:1, Informative)
This does not avoid all the ethical implications. Two ways to make a clone without a brain: suppress the brain gene expression, or remove the genes. Either have unknown side effects on the rest of the body, so may not be viable anyway. But the ethical problem is that you've just effectively destroyed a human embryo. This is ethically equivalent to an abortion. OK, effectively, but not actually destroyed the embryo: you've forced perfect retardation on an otherwise physically normal human.
Humans are more than parts to be harvested or discarded, regardless of age.