Concern over planned human cloning attempt

Dr Panayiotis Zavos, a fertility doctor who runs a clinic in the US, has announced at a London conference that he is ready to implant a cloned human embryo into a human uterus. Dr Zavos' announcement, made on 15 September, follows his claims in April 2003 that he had created the first cloned human embryo for reproductive purposes. Zavos claims to have created the embryo for an American couple, saying that it would be kept frozen until further tests on it had been performed, and that he would only consider implantation of the embryo if he could be certain that it was free from abnormalities and is capable of healthy development.

Last week he announced that the implantation might be possible before the end of 2003, and that any resulting baby will be female. Implantation of this cloned human embryo was due to have taken place in July, he said, but the attempt was postponed because the surrogate mother developed complications. Zavos told the conference that this implantation remained 'on the agenda this year'.

In response to the claim, Dr Sue Avery, Chair of the Association of Clinical Embryologists said: 'We are extremely concerned about the claims made by Dr Zavos that the first cloned human embryo will be implanted in a surrogate mother later this year'. She added that 'we feel that Dr Zavos is behaving in an extremely irresponsible manner and urge him not to take this dangerous work any further'.

The United Nations is to debate human cloning next week, when it is expected that the US will push for a resolution put forward by Costa Rica to ban all forms of cloning: both human reproductive cloning and 'therapeutic cloning' for medical research. The Inter-Academy Panel, an international network of scientific societies, is expected to call for a specific ban on human reproductive cloning. The move is backed by Lord Robert May, president of the UK's Royal Society, who said that human reproductive cloning was a threat to the health of both the cloned child and the mother.