Beginning of human reproductive cloning? 

This weekend three brief Commentaries on the subject of human reproductive cloning were published in RBMOnline. The lead article comes from Professor Zavos who presents a preliminary report on his recent work on this topic. His investigations into determining the efficiency of cloning human granulosa cell nuclei into bovine oocytes form a sort of assay for human work. Results were sufficiently clear to persuade his team to move to purely human studies. This has led to the first example of a cleaving human embryo (illustrated in the Commentary), which has been cryopreserved.

Clearly, this work could lead to reproductive cloning, which could have various impacts on assisted human conception. Therefore two Commentaries have been added to the paper of Zavos. Professor Robert Edwards (Chief Editor, RBMOnline) is the author of one of them, and Professor Azim Surani is the author of the second. They each provide opinions from investigators who have a keen interest in the work of Professor Zavos. Each stresses the need for chromosomal and molecular data on the embryo, currently lacking. Missing too are any new data on the safety of reproductive cloning in an animal species comparable to humans.

We hope this, the first detailed debate on work by a team dedicated to human cloning, offers a reasonable and balanced view of the pros and cons of this process, and at last provides some data on how the field is progressing.

Click 'Volume 6, No 4 June 2003 ' on the Forthcoming issues page.