Human Cloning on NPR

Joe Palca on NPR’s All Things Considered talks about human cloning today. Two of the obstacles mentioned that prevent successful human cloning were a shortage of human eggs and a lack of understanding on exactly how a fertilized egg develops into an embryo.

In the story, stem-cell scientist Susan Fisher’s response to being asked whether human embryos will eventually be cloned will surely horrify some people (including Rebecca):

Oh, I absolutely do think it’s going to happen. I don’t think there’s any biological reason why the human is any different than other mammalian species.

Interesting. I can think of many biological differences between us and other mammalian species with respect to reproduction, i.e., gestation periods, temperature differences between sperm storage and fertilization sites, and uterine environment. It seems as if the challenge to human cloning may be understated.

Tags: cloning, human cloning, genetics, genes, genome, dna, diseases, illness, health, npr