January 17, 2004

experts accuse cloning scientist of ‘seeking publicity by preying on people’s fears’

Scientists passed comment on maverick scientist Dr Panos Zavos’s claims to have just transferred an embryonic human clone to the womb of an infertile woman.

Professor Peter Braude, fertility expert, Kings College London, said:

“The idea of splitting embryos is not new – it was done in animals 15 years ago. But it has always been accompanied by low success rates and has therefore never been accepted for us in humans. Zavos does not represent mainstream science and what he and his colleagues are doing is seeking publicity rather than advancing science.”

Professor Robin Lovell-Badge, Professor of Genetics at the MRC’s National Institute for Medical Research, said:

“Zavos is merely preying on people’s fears. Firstly he preys on the fear of infertile couples that they will never have children. Secondly he preys on the fears of those who do conceive that their children will have health problems that could be solved by the splitting of embryos – without explaining that implanting half an embryo would dramatically reduce their chances of having a healthy baby in the first place.”

Dr Wolf Reik, cloning expert, The Babraham Institute, Cambridge, said:

“Absolutely nothing has changed in relation to the difficulties associated with reproductive cloning. In every single experiment, 99% of clones die in the womb and the remaining 1% have problems. Therefore it remains as irresponsible as before to do it in a human.”