“Pining for Clones, Whining for Eggs”

Such a clever title — I wish I had penned it. It belongs to our great friend Dr. David Prentice who recently examined what is going on in the cloning world. And the title aptly sums up the current scenario. Scientists desperate to create human clones are whining that they cannot get enough human female eggs.

Why the eggs, you ask? Well, cloning is so inefficient that it takes many tries, and thus a huge number of eggs, to create a single human clone. To create a human clone, the nucleus of an egg is hollowed out and the DNA of the person who is to be cloned is transferred into the egg. Only one company has verified in a published report that it created a human clone.

Scientists are pushing payments to women to produce the eggs they require. Even in California and Massachusetts where such payments are prohibited. Why the fuss if it’s just eggs that are needed? Because there is significant danger to women who undergo hyperstimulation to produce as many as 30 eggs at one time.

Prentice quotes Stanford professors Magnus and Cho who give these figures:

“Between 0.3 and 5% or up to 10% of women who undergo ovarian stimulation to procure oocytes experience severe ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome, which can cause pain, and occasionally leads to hospitalization, renal failure, potential future infertility, and even death.” The problem is so serious and offensive that a group of women have created a Hands Off Our Ovaries website.

Prentice asks, as do we, why scientists are going through so much trouble and putting women at risk when there are easier, cheaper, and much more successful alternatives to advance research that are ethically impeccable. Why not advance the recent discovery of iPS cells taken from the skin of patients and the use of nasal adult stem cells? Prentice thinks there is an economic interest in cloning. In the end, it may be all about the money.
To read the full Prentice report, click here.

Barbara Lyons