The Independent (UK) is reporting that a research team at the Oregon National Primate Research Center has successfully created multiple cloned embryos of a rhesus macaque. If this is true — the paper describing this research hasn’t been published yet — it would mark the first time someone has created multiple cloned embryos from an adult primate. The Independent reports that the same team has also extracted stem cells from these embryos and subsequently gotten them to develop into heart cells and neurons. The Oregon team has also reportedly implanted 100 cloned embryos into surrogate rhesus macaques, but they’ve yet to have a birth.
It’s worth noting that this research hasn’t been published, yet — apparently it’s due to show up in Nature later this month. And keeping the events of a few a years ago in mind, healthy and respectful skepticism isn’t a bad thing.
While we wait for this latest cloning research to be published, the UN would like to us to be thinking about the ethical and regulatory implications. A report out this past weekend from the United Nations University Institute of Advanced Studies urges the international community to get its act together on the formation of cloning regulation. From the report‘s conclusion:
Public policy demands that the international community show itself as capable of espousing an effective and pragmatic approach with respect to both reproductive and research cloning as a matter of urgency before the birth of a human being from a cloned embryo. This would have a deterrent effect on the publicised efforts of several groups to produce a cloned human being. On the other hand the delay in arriving at a consensus at the international level may encourage forum shopping by determined proponents of reproductive cloning.
The full report is available as a pdf.
-Greg Dahlmann