A major breakthrough has just been achieved in stem cell research. Through human cloning, American scientists have effectively produced early embryos and used them as a source of stem cells with a procedure similar to the one that produced “Dolly the sheep”, the first mammal ever to be cloned. The finding was published in the journal Cell.

Stem cells

  • Embryos formed during the blastocyst phase of embryological development (embryonic stem cells)
  • Adult tissue, i.e. adult stem cells.


the first human embryonic stem cell (hESC) lines that are free of animal contamination and whose production complies with Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP).



“Our finding offers new ways of generating stem cells for patients with dysfunctional or damaged tissues and organs. Such stem cells can regenerate and replace those damaged cells and tissues and alleviate diseases that affect millions of people.”

SCNT creates embryos which are nearly identical to those of the donor









“It was thought that, to make human SCNT work, many thousands of human eggs would be needed. We were able to produce one ESC line using just two human eggs, which would make this approach practical for widespread therapeutic”

This is the first time that scientists have been able to use SCNT to create human embryonic stem cells (hESCs).





“They’ve done the same as the Wright brothers really. They’ve looked around at where are all the best bits of how to do this from different groups all over the place and basically amalgamated it.

The Wright brothers took off and this has actually managed to make embryonic stem cells.”





“Scientists have finally delivered the baby that would-be human cloners have been waiting for: a method for reliably creating cloned human embryos.

This makes it imperative that we create an international legal ban on human cloning before any more research like this takes place. It is irresponsible in the extreme to have published this research.”