Monday, January 29, 2001 Home > Page One > Article News National World Features/Arts Entertainment Text Index -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Sport Sport News SportsToday Rugby Heaven League HQ The Pavilion RealFooty -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Biz/Tech Business News Money Manager Trading Room I.T. News Icon -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Extra News Review Spectrum Travel -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Sydney Weather TV Guide Visiting Weekends Away -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Market Shopping Jobs Property Cars Auctions I.T. Jobs Classifieds -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Services Advertise - print - online Delivery - paper - e-mail - handheld -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Help Audio/video - PAGE ONE Doctor ready to clone human A controversial Italian fertility expert says that he will attempt to produce the first cloned human being within a year. In the same week Britain's House of Lords voted to allow scientists to clone human embryos for research purposes, Dr Severino Antinori, who runs a fertility clinic in Rome, claimed to have 10 couples willing to take part in the experiment, one of them, Australian. If successful, it will produce a baby who will be an exact genetic replica of its father. Dr Antinori is already notorious for enabling a mother of almost 63 to have a child to replace her adult son who died and for causing uproar in Britain six years ago when he helped a 59-year-old unmarried woman have twins. Last Thursday he told a meeting in Lexington, Kentucky, that he was forming an "international coalition" of scientists to work on the cloning project in "a country of the Mediterranean where I had consent". At the meeting, Dr Antinori's host, the United States reproductive physiologist Dr Panos Zavos, said that he would be joining the doctor's team, which would meet in Rome in March. Dr Antinori said the infertile parents included six couples from Italy, one from the United States, one Australian and one Japanese. Already included in his team were scientists from Australia, America and Japan. The baby would be created by taking the nucleus of a man's cell, probably a skin cell, and injecting it into a human egg that had been stripped of its own genetic material. After a few days, if the embryo began to develop, this would be implanted in the womb of the "mother" in the hope of producing a healthy baby. Such an experiment would be a criminal offence in Britain, the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority said last night. Parliament had approved only "therapeutic cloning" for medical research. Few countries apart from Germany and the United States have laws to prohibit Dr Antinori from going ahead. Italy has no legislation on in-vitro fertilisation although Dr Antinori would risk the wrath of the Vatican if he carried out his experiment there. The Telegraph, London [go to top] In this section Howard's high tech boost to unis, research Racing a train: is that why five mates died? Court pins poll hopes to mandatory sentencing Toll soars to 22,000 in the desert of death Ordeal over now, says Microsoft Doctor ready to clone human Sex, pubs and rock 'n' roll And the band played on Let the ratings begin Liberté, égalité, fraternité... Agassi! -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Site Guide | Archive | Feedback | Privacy Policy Copyright © 2001. All rights reserved.