Ok, the other controversial threads seem to have petered out, and I saw a show on TLC about this last night and this article this morning, so I figured I'd start a thread and see how this discussion goes. (I don't have time to post my opinion right now, but I will when I get the chance.
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AUGUST 13, 05:17 ET
Doctor Defends Cloning Experiment
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — A doctor who is trying to clone babies for several couples as part of a controversial experiment said cloning isn't such a ``monstrous'' procedure, but he acknowledged that risks do exist.
Dr. Panayiotis Zavos appeared on CNN's ``Connie Chung Tonight'' on Monday with an American couple who will be the first to take part in the cloning. Six or seven couples hope to have a baby next year as part of the experiment.
``The public will realize that this is not as monstrous as ... it may sound. Once they see a baby dressed in pink or blue, they will say, 'What a wonderful thing,''' said Zavos.
But ``for me to say there are no risks involved, that would be a pure lie,'' he added.
The American couple — known only as Bill and Kathy — described publicly for the first time the failed attempts to have a child that led them to turn to Zavos.
The reproduction researcher said he plans to clone a baby for the couple by taking DNA from Kathy and adding it to a donor's egg. The donor's DNA would be removed from the egg, which would be implanted into a surrogate mother.
Zavos said the procedures would be attempted later this year in two overseas clinics. He would not disclose the locations.
Bill and Kathy, whose voices were disguised and faces blurred on the show, said they met in 1989 — Bill was a 40-something divorcee and Kathy was a 30-something career woman. The two wed in 1993 and immediately began trying to have a baby.
After failed attempts of reproducing the natural way, the couple tried artificial insemination and in vitro fertilization. Nearly four years after their last unsuccessful attempt in 1998, the couple read an article on Zavos and his cloning experiments.
``I tracked him down, and I called him, and I called him, and I called him,'' Bill said.
Zavos resigned last year from the University of Kentucky to help lead the human cloning effort. So far his medical teams have experimented only with animal clones.
Both Congress and the U.N. General Assembly have debated bans on human cloning, but have yet to pass legislation. A few states and foreign countries, including Great Britain, have prohibited cloning.
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