NEW YORK, JULY 6, 2001 (Zenit.org).- Bolstering the scientific arguments against human cloning, researchers have found that even apparently healthy clones may hide unpredictable genetic abnormalities, Science magazine reports.
In experiments with laboratory animals, scientists at the Whitehead Institute at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the University of Hawaii found that clones created with embryonic stem cells develop apparently unpredictable errors in when and how their genes become active.
Those errors can lead to early death or serious abnormality in the resulting animals, the researchers said. The research also found that stem cells themselves are surprisingly unstable.
Medical researchers hope to use stem cells to produce perfectly matched tissues to replace or repair organs that have stopped functioning, thus treating diseases and perhaps allowing the replacement of body parts. Obtaining the stem cells requires the destruction of embryonic human beings.
