April 5, 2002

scientists comment on maverick cloning claims

These comments follow claims from Dr Severino Antinori that a woman in his fertility programme is eight weeks pregnant with a cloned human embryo.

Dr Antinori’s comments were originally reported in GulfNews.com by Kavitha S. Daniel, a feature writer covering the Abu Dhabi conference. Ms Daniel met Dr Antinori briefly as he left the building, and asked, “What is the status of your project?” He replied, “We have a woman who is eight weeks pregnant”. According to Ms Daniel, Dr Antinori DID NOT specifically state that the embryo in question was a cloned human. Moreover, she did not record his comments on tape. Dr Antinori’s research institute, Ricercatori Associati per la Riproduzione Umana, Rome, has refused to confirm the story.

Professor Steve Jones, professor of Genetics at University College, London, said:

“If anyone were reckless enough to attempt cloning a baby it would be Dr Antorini. The very fact that he has announced this information via the Gulf News Service rather than a published paper highlights the extent of his publicity seeking nature.

“If this news is indeed true, then there are two points that you really have to take into consideration. Firstly, the ethics – is it right to clone humans? Secondly, you have to examine the practical facts of cloning, which has an extremely low success rate. Dolly the sheep took hundreds of attempts to create, and many cloned animals have severe birth defects. Forget the philosophy, think of the practical dangers. This should not be done.”

Dr Tom Shakespeare, of Policy, Ethics and Life Sciences, Newcastle, said:

“There are serious international concerns that reproductive cloning should not take place. This confirms the need for global regulation to prevents mavericks like Antinori putting science into disrepute. There are serious hazards to any possible cloned child, including major developmental impairment. But I’m highly sceptical about whether this report is true or not.”

Prof Tom Kirkwood, Head of the Gerontology Department of Newcastle University, said:

“It’s rather appalling. All we know about cloning and damage to DNA means that this procedure is fraught with danger. Normal reproduction has ‘quality assurance’ built in to stop genetic errors being transferred. Cloning from a somatic cell – that is, one that is already aging – doesn’t work in the same way, because that quality control mechanism is not there. With time, faults in these cells will accumulate. Dolly the sheep has all the hallmarks of age related damage, and it seems that clones do experience accelerated ageing.

“I’m really worried that if the developmental process of this embryo is completed, a child will be born with serious genetic damage, which could lead to long-term illness. Cloning technology simply is not advanced enough to attempt human cloning safely. Moreover, the ethics of reproductive cloning are very questionable.”

Dr Mary Herbert, a fertility expert at the International Centre for Life, Newcastle, said:

“I’m very sceptical – the last big human cloning development was an implanted six-cell embryo in the US. An eight week long pregnancy is so far in advance that I’m very dubious about the truth of the report.

“I fervently hope it’s not true. From Dolly the sheep, we know that the cloning technique is too hit and miss. A lot more research would have to be done on animal cloning before human reproductive cloning could ever be attempted. From an ethical point of view, the vast majority of scientists believe he shouldn’t be doing these experiments anyway.”