Why Cant Human’s Lay Eggs?

In 1996, researchers cloned Dolly the sheep. This was accomplished using a technique called somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT). The process involves the transfer of a nucleus, which contains the DNA to be cloned, into a nucleus-free egg to stimulate the replication of the DNA. But, can a human be cloned using this technique? Scientists, ethicists, and politicians have wondered about the same idea, but many have rejected this idea as it trespasses upon unethical boundaries.
To test this controversial idea, Advanced Cell Technology researchers applied SCNT on human eggs. Robert Lanza, the ACT chief executive, claimed that the human eggs effectively reprogrammed the human DNA so that gene activity mirrored that in normal human embryos over the first few days of development. However, the lack of human eggs had hindered the further development and understanding of SCNT. Therefore, scientists have started to use a hybrid approach. Instead of using human eggs, ACT researchers transplanted human DNA into animal eggs. Since no cells from such hybrid embryos would be transplanted into people, ACT researchers hoped to derive stem cell lines to further explore genetic diseases.
To the researchers’ dismay, the hybrid approach was unsuccessful. The report indicated that the hybrid embryos were unable to activate the developmental genes needed for stem cell formation, such as those activated in human embryos. Some critics disagree with this statement, claiming that not enough time was allotted for the hybrid embryos to develop. Despite the failure of the hybrid approach, ACT chief executive, Robert Lanza, indicates that cloning an actual person is indeed possible.

Posted by Saad Choudhry (1)

Update (February 13, 2009):

Human cloning is still a trivial topic. Most people view human cloning as being unethical and have rejected this idea. Personally, I fail to disagree with this point of view. First of all, the process of somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT) has not yet produced human somatic embryonic stem cells. Adding more people to the gene pool is definitely out of the question. “A South Korean team famously claimed a few years ago to have made human embryonic stem cells using SCNT, but that cloning work was found to have been fraudulent.” Secondly, there is no telling what kind of complications/mutations that could arise with a cloned human embryo. Although human stem cell lines can be utilized to better study genetic diseases, the cons of human cloning outweigh the pros.